Twilight Town High School
by Legacy918
Summary: Experience the lives of your favorite Kingdom Hearts characters in high school not from their points of view, but from the perspectives of Twilight Town High School's new students. Couples: SoraxKairi, RoxasxXion, RikuxXion, TerraxAqua, HaynerxOlette, OCxNamine, and read to find out what other couples there are.
1. The First Day of School

**Hey guys! I'm really excited about this story because the last one got deleted on my computer and to show my excitement, I'll give you a total of three chapters right off the bat because 1) I want to give you guys a good feeling of the story and the main characters, 2) I have them done, and lastly, but most importantly, 3) I hate waiting. Anyway let's get on with the disclaimer that no one likes but everyone has to do.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the charactrs in this story except the OC's.**

**Chapter 1: The First Day of School-Aero**

"Aero! Yo! Aero! Wake up!" My eyes open slowly to a fuzzy image that clears up to be my best friends Jack and Noah.

Jack starts slapping my face a little, "Get up dude!"

"I'm up! I'm up!" I sit up straight and look around the bus. There's a bad smell in the air like the smell you get when you leave nachos out for five days. "Well looks like I dozed off."

Noah helped me up from the bus seat, "What time did you go sleep dude?"

"I don't know," I start scratching the back of my head as we exit the bus and make our way to Twilight Town High School. It's the first day for all three of us even though I'm a senior and my friends are sophomores. Well to be specific Noah is my younger cousin. Our parents were killed at a family party when some gangster friends of our idiot cousin dropped by and started shooting up the place. Ten people died and Noah and I were left without parents or a home. Jack's parents took us both in because they were close to both my and Noah's parents. Now Jack and Noah are like my younger brothers, even though they both ended up being taller than me.

Jack is the tallest from the three of us, has spiky brown hair, light skin, and is usually dressed like a pretty boy wearing mostly flannels and Levi's. He's also the outgoing one that makes a fool of himself but you can't help but like him. He knows the right thing to say at the right time and he is a huge ladies man. He's had more girlfriends than I've had jobs. And trust me. I've had lots of jobs. I had to keep working to help Jack's parents feed and house not only the three of us, but Jack's little sisters too.

Noah is completely different from Jack with his black hair combed to the side and a good boy style usually wearing polo shirts and blue jeans. He's pretty scrawny so you wouldn't want him to back you up in a fist fight but he would be there for you anyway because he's a loyal friend. He tends to think things through before making a decision unlike Jack who likes to go in before thinking.

It's pretty good to have both sides of the spectrum to balance each other. I'm the middle man that knows when to trust his gut and when to really assess the situation. Those two still have things to learn. And so do I. From the three of us, I'm the shortest but also the oldest. I've got a nice tan, black hair spiked forward. I've got sort of a slacker style usually wearing colored T-shirts and hoodies I'll dress like Jack when it comes to parties and gatherings.

Jack's dad was transferred to a new insurance office here in Twilight Town so we all had to pack up and move together. We came here in the beginning of August so we've had about a month or so to settle in. Jack's mom and I have already found jobs. She's working at a restaurant like five blocks away from my school called The Destiny Islands. They have good burgers there. I, on the other hand, will be working part time at some smoothie and ice cream place called Paopu Paradise.

We walk towards the front entrance and as we walk into the main building we see a group of five girls. Man the girls here are really hot. There's a really cute petite blonde girl with bright green eyes. Next to her is a girl with short black hair. Kind of seems like a tomboy. There's a pretty cute girl with brown hair and green eyes. Woah! There's a really tall girl with short blue hair. She's really hot though. Too bad she's taller than me (Sigh). The one that's caught my eye though is a short girl with long flowing red hair, sparkling blue eyes, and flawless white skin.

As we walk by the girls, the red haired girl looks over at us. I smile at her and she smiles back then looks away. Was that a blush I saw? I'm really liking this school now.

As Jack, Noah, and I walk into what seems to be the main office, I turn to my right to see a really tall man standing with his arms crossed. He's got long silver hair but he seems really young.

"You must be new students," he says to us.

"Uh," I hesitated, "Yeah. How did you—"

"I'm the assistant principal," he interrupts. He starts looking through some files that he is carrying and says, "My name is Mr. Xehanort and the three of you are Aero, Jack, and Noah correct?"

"Yes sir," I respond. "That would be us."

"Come this way." He turns and walks through another door which takes us outside to a courtyard surrounded by a two story building which must be the classrooms. He gives us a short tour of the campus showing us the nurses office, the classrooms, the gym, and the lunch room. He concludes his tour by giving us our schedules. "Now that we are finished your homeroom classes will begin in one minute. Don't be late." He turns around and walks back to the main office.

Jack, Noah, and I look at each other wide-eyed and yell in unison, "Crap!"

"I'll see you guys during break!" I yell at them as we start running to our respective homeroom classes. "Let's meet here by the office!"

"Got it!" they both yell back at me.

I look at my paper and check the room number. Room 113. Where the hell is that?! I run until I find the room just as the teacher is closing it.

The teacher says, "Right on time". I try to catch my breath and when I finally do I look up to see a tall man with long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. He has a gray streak of hair so I'm guessing he's kind of old. But then again he doesn't look old. What's up with all the young adults with gray hair?!

"Sorry about that Mr. uh?" I look at my paper, "Arrow!"

"No worries. As long as you beat the clock it's okay with me. So what's your name kid?"

Kid?! I'm seventeen! "I'm Aero." I respond calmly.

"Aero huh? Not as in my last name right?" He chuckles a bit and I smile politely not trying to get on his bad side. "I think there may be confusion so how about I give you a nickname? Hmmm, don't know too much about you. Favorite sport?"

"To watch or play?"

"Either one, you're pick."

"I like playing basketball and I watch football and basketball."

"Mmm...how about I come up with one as we go along okay?"

"Sure…"

"Alright, cool" He responds. "Now let's see, why don't you take a seat right next to Aqua over there?"

Hey it's that tall girl with the blue hair. I take my seat next to her and set my backpack on the table.

"Hi. I'm Aqua." I turn to my left to see her smiling with a hand stretched out before me.

I crack a smile and reply calmly, "Hey. I'm Aero." I take her hand and we shake. Smooth hand.

"So it's your first day here?"

"Yeah. I moved in from Traverse Town"

"Oh I love Traverse Town! So many shops and people there! It's always so bright outside even at night which makes me feel safe walking around town!"

"Yeah it's pretty nice." We both quiet down for a bit. Meeting people for the first time isn't my strong suit.

"So how do you like it in Twilight Town so far?"

"It's cozy here. It's a lot calmer here than in Traverse Town."

"Yeah it's really active there." She pauses. "Hey I know it can be tough being at a new school so would you like to hang out with me and my friends during break?"

"Uh, sure that sounds good. Thanks. Is it okay if a couple of my friends join?"

"That would be even better!"

Wow this girl is seriously friendly. Makes this whole first day thing much easier.

"Alright everyone. Head out to your first periods and try not to give your teachers too much trouble." We all laugh. Mr. Arrow seems really laid back.

I exit the room walking next to Aqua and she asks me, "Hey what class do you have first?"

"I've got Government."

"Great! I'm headed there too. We can walk to class together!"

"Alright sounds good." We walk to our next class and enter to find the teacher sitting down with his feet resting on the desk. This dude seems really irresponsible. He's even got a scar on his face.

Aqua screams in excitement "Hey! Terra!" and walks over to a tall guy with long spiky brown hair. She gives him a huge hug and introduces me. "Hey Aero come over here. I want you to meet my friend Terra!" I notice that his jaw tightened at the sound of the word friend. Interesting. We shake hands.

"Hey I'm Aero." He's got a pretty firm grip.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Terra." We let go of each other's hands and all take a seat together. Aqua starts talking and Terra seems like he's trying to ignore me until I start cracking stupid jokes about some guy I saw in the hall earlier that was carrying around a giant sitar. That's when he starts opening up and we are clowning on him together and making Aqua laugh. Turns out his name is Demyx and he's really cocky. Guess that's why Terra doesn't like him.

The bell rings and the teacher speaks up. "Alright everyone quiet down. My name is Mr. Leonheart. I'll be your teacher for this class. Now there are only three rules here. Number one, read your assignment that is written on the board. Number two, don't bother me. And number three, no talking. Any questions?" About five students raise their hands. "Good get started."

What a dick. I finish my work and even have twenty minutes to spare so I just start doodling in my notebook.

Terra looks over my shoulder and said, "This kid trying to be Picasso over here." I know they're horrible so I laugh. I look over at his notebook and he's drawing too but his are even worse than mine.

"And I guess you're Leonardo Da Vinci right?" Both he and Aqua laugh which makes Mr. Leonheart look over at us with a serious look. We stop laughing until he looks back at his newspaper and we continue chuckling. First period ends and it's break.

"Hey I told my friends I would meet up with them by the main office. Where can I find you guys?"

"By the tables in the corner." Aqua points to a group of tables and when I see them, I nod and head to the main office.


	2. New Friends

**Chapter 3: Let's get some Ice Cream-Jack**

I walk out of my Biology class talking to Xion, Olette, and Selphie. Why are all the girls here so hot? Xion has really short hair and she's still attractive. Anyway we walk to the front entrance where I meet up with Noah. Aero has to work so he left immediately after school. It's cool that Aero is my adoptive brother but I feel bad that he forces himself to work to help out my parents. We hardly even get to hang out anymore.

"So what do you guys want to do now?" asks Xion.

"Aero works at an awesome smoothie ice cream place not too far from here" I respond.

"Oh so that's where that shorty ran off to" replies Xion.

Selphie protects him, "He's still taller than us."

"Don't remind me about how short I am" says Xion.

"So what are we waiting for?" I ask.

Noah responds, "Well Roxas and Ventus are going to meet up with us here too."

"We're here!" yells Ventus as he and his brother run up to us. "Sorry Roxas almost got us killed by Seifer and his gang."

"Woah!" exclaims Noah. "There are gangs here?!"

"I didn't mean it like as gangsters or anything like that" replies Ventus. "I meant it like his posse. Why? Is there something wrong?"

"Hey bro we'd rather not talk about gangs" I tell him.

"So that smoothie place," interjects Xion. "You think Aero will give us discounts?"

"He doesn't even give us discounts" I reply. "Some crap about it being against work policy or something like that."

"Hey if you work at a smoothie place you should be able to spot your friends" says Roxas.

"That's what I'm saying!" I reply jokingly. We get to Paopu Paradise where we see Aero at the register and we all burst out laughing because he is wearing a hat with a stuffed Paopu fruit on top of it.

"Oh come on you had to bring everyone?"

"Hey we didn't bring everyone" I rebut. "Sora, Aqua, and the others aren't here."

"Hey don't you have to treat us like paying customers?" teases Xion.

"Welcome to Paopu Paradise. What would you like today?"

"That's more like it" she replies. "Okay I'll get a Paopu Berry Bash."

"Make that two!" says Olette.

"Three!" adds Roxas.

"What about the rest of you guys?" Xion asks.

Selphie responds, "I think I'll get a Paopu Mango Madness."

Noah adds on, "Same here."

"I think I'll get a chocolate ice cream" says Ventus.

"Make that two" I add. We pay for our smoothies and ice cream and sit down. Aero brings them to us then goes back behind the counter.

"Yeah go clean your juicer" says Xion.

Aero responds, "I'll clean out your juicer" and winks at her.

"You tell me the place and time shorty" she teases.

"In about two years when you get to my eye level," he pauses, "shorty." We laugh as he goes behind the counter and does whatever Paopu Paradise workers do.

"Well if it isn't the loser twins?" We turn our attention to a guy standing at the door. He has a beanie on and a long white sleeveless coat. Kind of just seems like a rich white boy. With him is a girl with silvery purple hair like my English teacher and scary read eyes. There's also some big muscular dude who looks like he could move a mountain before he figures out two plus two is four. Finally there's some short guy—yes even shorter than Aero—wearing a huge wizard har. I can't really see his face because his hat and puffy clothes kind of cover it.

"What do you want Seifer?" asks Roxas.

"You owe me some cash loser. You lost that bet fair and square."

"What bet?" asked Xion.

Roxas turns his head halfway towards her and says, "It's nothing." He turns his attention back to Seifer. "I don't have the money right now. I'll pay you back tomorrow."

"You've been saying that since the end of the last school year. You can't pay me back but you can buy smoothies with your friends?"

Aero steps in "Hey what's the problem here?"

Seifer looks at him, "None of your business shorty."

"I'll ask one more time. What's the problem here?"

Xion interjects, "Roxas here owes Seifer money." Well that explains why he and Ventus were running earlier.

"I'll cover it."

"No dude. It's okay" replies Roxas.

"It's not okay" responds Aero. "If it were, Seifer wouldn't be here asking for money." He turns his attention to Seifer. "How much?"

"Fifty Dollars."

Aero looks at Roxas but not because he was angry. This look was more of concern hidden by seriousness. Takes years to figure out what Aero means through certain expressions. I would know seeing as how we've been brothers for ten years and friends since I was like one. "I'll be right back. Let me get the money." He goes into the back and while he is gone everyone is silent. We all look at either Roxas or Seifer and trust me this is extremely uncomfortable. Aero returns. "Here's your money. Now would you like to spend any of that on a delicious smoothie?" His tone stays serious. Not even a hint of sarcasm in his voice. I look at my adopted brother then at Seifer.

"Sure I'll get four Paopu Berry Bashes."

"Right away." His voice stays monotone. Seifer and his crew sit at a table on the other side of the joint. Aero finishes making their smoothies and calls them up. They grab their smoothies and leave. We stay quiet for about five minutes until Selphie starts talking about some girl crap that happened in one of her classes. I don't pay much attention to it but instead try to think of what just happened. I mean what did Roxas bet on and why so much? Was he that confident that he would win or was he just being stupid? His brother even said that Roxas almost got them killed. Did Roxas agitate Seifer? But how? Why do I even care this much about some shit this guy I barely met got into?

We finish our smoothies and everyone decides to leave a tip for Aero except me and Noah of course because we didn't even have any money. Aero paid for our smoothies himself. As we exit we notice that it's kind of dark.

"I should be getting home" says Xion.

"I'll walk you home" offers Roxas.

"You just want more time with me."

"I just thought your juicer needs cleaning seeing as how Aero didn't clean it."

She giggles. "Alright lets go loser. We'll see you guys tomorrow." She hugs everyone and they leave.

"Yeah my brother is not getting that" says Ventus as we all start walking.

"What makes you say that?" I ask.

"Because she is crazy about Riku" replies Selphie.

Noah asks in shock, "Riku? Why? He's so serious!"

"That's what she likes about him" she replies. "Xion has always been into the bad boy types. Her ex is Seifer?"

Noah and I yelled in unison, "What?!"

"Yup." Says Olette. "She got with him because he is serious but he ended up cheating on her with Fuu, that girl you saw with him."

"And that's where my brother steps in" adds Ventus. "When Xion broke up with Seifer, she needed someone to talk to so she called practically everyone in our group and the only two that were available were Roxas and Axel. Axel decided to treat Xion and Roxas to some ice cream and from that point forward the three of them have been extremely close. Now the thing is, Axel was dating a girl named Larxene at the time, even though they recently got back together, so he wasn't available all the time so just Roxas and Xion would hang out and he's had a crush on her since they first met. He was hoping after breaking up with Seifer, she would realize who's been there for her the whole time and fall for him."

"Well they seem really close." I say. "She plays with him a lot so maybe she likes him too?"

"No she's like that with everyone," says Noah. "Since the moment I met Xion, she's been extremely friendly to me and with everyone else she talks to."

"Noah is right" adds Selphie. "Xion is just a friendly person so she thinks Roxas is being friendly too. Sorry to say but nice guys finish last."

I think about all of the girls I've been with and realize that I wasn't super friendly with them. I was extremely flirtatious with each and every one of them. I didn't listen to them talk about their feelings. I would just try to impress them, get with them, and when I got tired I would just break up with them. Selphie is right. Nice guys do finish last.

We drop off Selphie then Olette, and finally Ventus. Then Noah and I go home and find my parents and little sisters there with dinner ready. We all wait together and mom saves some food for Aero for when he gets home. I got to my, Aero, and Noah's room and finish up some homework. When I finish, I go to the living room to find Aero eating and watching TV so I join him then we go to our room and knock out.


	3. Let's Get Some Ice Cream

**Chapter 3: Let's get some Ice Cream-Jack**

I walk out of my Biology class talking to Xion, Olette, and Selphie. Why are all the girls here so hot? Xion has really short hair and she's still attractive. Anyway we walk to the front entrance where I meet up with Noah. Aero has to work so he left immediately after school. It's cool that Aero is my adoptive brother but I feel bad that he forces himself to work to help out my parents. We hardly even get to hang out anymore.

"So what do you guys want to do now?" asks Xion.

"Aero works at an awesome smoothie ice cream place not too far from here" I respond.

"Oh so that's where that shorty ran off to" replies Xion.

Selphie protects him, "He's still taller than us."

"Don't remind me about how short I am" says Xion.

"So what are we waiting for?" I ask.

Noah responds, "Well Roxas and Ventus are going to meet up with us here too."

"We're here!" yells Ventus as he and his brother run up to us. "Sorry Roxas almost got us killed by Seifer and his gang."

"Woah!" exclaims Noah. "There are gangs here?!"

"I didn't mean it like as gangsters or anything like that" replies Ventus. "I meant it like his posse. Why? Is there something wrong?"

"Hey bro we'd rather not talk about gangs" I tell him.

"So that smoothie place," interjects Xion. "You think Aero will give us discounts?"

"He doesn't even give us discounts" I reply. "Some crap about it being against work policy or something like that."

"Hey if you work at a smoothie place you should be able to spot your friends" says Roxas.

"That's what I'm saying!" I reply jokingly. We get to Paopu Paradise where we see Aero at the register and we all burst out laughing because he is wearing a hat with a stuffed Paopu fruit on top of it.

"Oh come on you had to bring everyone?"

"Hey we didn't bring everyone" I rebut. "Sora, Aqua, and the others aren't here."

"Hey don't you have to treat us like paying customers?" teases Xion.

"Welcome to Paopu Paradise. What would you like today?"

"That's more like it" she replies. "Okay I'll get a Paopu Berry Bash."

"Make that two!" says Olette.

"Three!" adds Roxas.

"What about the rest of you guys?" Xion asks.

Selphie responds, "I think I'll get a Paopu Mango Madness."

Noah adds on, "Same here."

"I think I'll get a chocolate ice cream" says Ventus.

"Make that two" I add. We pay for our smoothies and ice cream and sit down. Aero brings them to us then goes back behind the counter.

"Yeah go clean your juicer" says Xion.

Aero responds, "I'll clean out your juicer" and winks at her.

"You tell me the place and time shorty" she teases.

"In about two years when you get to my eye level," he pauses, "shorty." We laugh as he goes behind the counter and does whatever Paopu Paradise workers do.

"Well if it isn't the loser twins?" We turn our attention to a guy standing at the door. He has a beanie on and a long white sleeveless coat. Kind of just seems like a rich white boy. With him is a girl with silvery purple hair like my English teacher and scary read eyes. There's also some big muscular dude who looks like he could move a mountain before he figures out two plus two is four. Finally there's some short guy—yes even shorter than Aero—wearing a huge wizard har. I can't really see his face because his hat and puffy clothes kind of cover it.

"What do you want Seifer?" asks Roxas.

"You owe me some cash loser. You lost that bet fair and square."

"What bet?" asked Xion.

Roxas turns his head halfway towards her and says, "It's nothing." He turns his attention back to Seifer. "I don't have the money right now. I'll pay you back tomorrow."

"You've been saying that since the end of the last school year. You can't pay me back but you can buy smoothies with your friends?"

Aero steps in "Hey what's the problem here?"

Seifer looks at him, "None of your business shorty."

"I'll ask one more time. What's the problem here?"

Xion interjects, "Roxas here owes Seifer money." Well that explains why he and Ventus were running earlier.

"I'll cover it."

"No dude. It's okay" replies Roxas.

"It's not okay" responds Aero. "If it were, Seifer wouldn't be here asking for money." He turns his attention to Seifer. "How much?"

"Fifty Dollars."

Aero looks at Roxas but not because he was angry. This look was more of concern hidden by seriousness. Takes years to figure out what Aero means through certain expressions. I would know seeing as how we've been brothers for ten years and friends since I was like one. "I'll be right back. Let me get the money." He goes into the back and while he is gone everyone is silent. We all look at either Roxas or Seifer and trust me this is extremely uncomfortable. Aero returns. "Here's your money. Now would you like to spend any of that on a delicious smoothie?" His tone stays serious. Not even a hint of sarcasm in his voice. I look at my adopted brother then at Seifer.

"Sure I'll get four Paopu Berry Bashes."

"Right away." His voice stays monotone. Seifer and his crew sit at a table on the other side of the joint. Aero finishes making their smoothies and calls them up. They grab their smoothies and leave. We stay quiet for about five minutes until Selphie starts talking about some girl crap that happened in one of her classes. I don't pay much attention to it but instead try to think of what just happened. I mean what did Roxas bet on and why so much? Was he that confident that he would win or was he just being stupid? His brother even said that Roxas almost got them killed. Did Roxas agitate Seifer? But how? Why do I even care this much about some shit this guy I barely met got into?

We finish our smoothies and everyone decides to leave a tip for Aero except me and Noah of course because we didn't even have any money. Aero paid for our smoothies himself. As we exit we notice that it's kind of dark.

"I should be getting home" says Xion.

"I'll walk you home" offers Roxas.

"You just want more time with me."

"I just thought your juicer needs cleaning seeing as how Aero didn't clean it."

She giggles. "Alright lets go loser. We'll see you guys tomorrow." She hugs everyone and they leave.

"Yeah my brother is not getting that" says Ventus as we all start walking.

"What makes you say that?" I ask.

"Because she is crazy about Riku" replies Selphie.

Noah asks in shock, "Riku? Why? He's so serious!"

"That's what she likes about him" she replies. "Xion has always been into the bad boy types. Her ex is Seifer?"

Noah and I yelled in unison, "What?!"

"Yup." Says Olette. "She got with him because he is serious but he ended up cheating on her with Fuu, that girl you saw with him."

"And that's where my brother steps in" adds Ventus. "When Xion broke up with Seifer, she needed someone to talk to so she called practically everyone in our group and the only two that were available were Roxas and Axel. Axel decided to treat Xion and Roxas to some ice cream and from that point forward the three of them have been extremely close. Now the thing is, Axel was dating a girl named Larxene at the time, even though they recently got back together, so he wasn't available all the time so just Roxas and Xion would hang out and he's had a crush on her since they first met. He was hoping after breaking up with Seifer, she would realize who's been there for her the whole time and fall for him."

"Well they seem really close." I say. "She plays with him a lot so maybe she likes him too?"

"No she's like that with everyone," says Noah. "Since the moment I met Xion, she's been extremely friendly to me and with everyone else she talks to."

"Noah is right" adds Selphie. "Xion is just a friendly person so she thinks Roxas is being friendly too. Sorry to say but nice guys finish last."

I think about all of the girls I've been with and realize that I wasn't super friendly with them. I was extremely flirtatious with each and every one of them. I didn't listen to them talk about their feelings. I would just try to impress them, get with them, and when I got tired I would just break up with them. Selphie is right. Nice guys do finish last.

We drop off Selphie then Olette, and finally Ventus. Then Noah and I go home and find my parents and little sisters there with dinner ready. We all wait together and mom saves some food for Aero for when he gets home. I got to my, Aero, and Noah's room and finish up some homework. When I finish, I go to the living room to find Aero eating and watching TV so I join him then we go to our room and knock out.


	4. Just Friends

**Alright I hope you guys enjoyed the first three chapters and got a feel for the characters in this story. Now I hope you enjoy this next chapter and write reviews of my story as long as it's positive or constructive criticism because it will help my writing in the future. Thanks! Now let's get this chapter started!**

**Chapter 4: Just Friends-Aero**

I finally get off of work at 8:00 and make my way home. The good thing about Twilight Town is that it's a small town and everything is pretty close together so walking home isn't a big deal. As I walk through the dark streets lit only by the dim street lights, I stroll by the houses and apartment buildings. On the corner of Kingdom Road and Twilight Avenue, I make a left and at the second house to my left I see some familiar faces. It's Roxas and Xion sitting on the front porch. I'm not exactly sure whose house this is but it's only two blocks away from the house I'm living in. I stand behind a stone wall to listen in on what they're talking about. Yes I'm a bit of an eavesdropper but I'm only doing it to make sure they aren't talking bad about me and my friends.

"Are you kidding me?!" yells Xion. "The Pride Land Lions don't stand a chance against the Port Royal Pirates. Just look at their quarterback! His receivers run twenty yards and he throws is thirty."

"Hey at least the Lions don't cheat" rebuts Roxas.

"They did not cheat!"

"Xion. They bribed the refs."

"That was only once."

He looks at her.

"Okay maybe four times. But that's it."

I didn't know Xion was into sports. And who are they kidding? The Halloween Town Jack O' Lanterns are better than both of their teams.

"Hey Roxas."

"Yeah?"

"What do you think of those new kids at school?"

Alright here it comes.

"They all seem pretty cool. I mean Jack is funny, Noah is clever, and Aero—man Aero really saved me today."

"That reminds me. What was that bet you lost to Seifer about?"

"I already told you it's nothing."

"Come on, Aero paid Seifer fifty dollars to save your ass. And Ventus seemed pretty worried when you guys ran to us after school. He said you were running from Seifer."

"Well I guess I should tell you now."

"Damn right you should."

He chuckles. "Please don't hate me for this."

"Hate you for what?"

"Well for the longest I've had the biggest crush on you."

Dude why did you call it a crush?

He continues. "I can be myself when I'm around you and you make me feel good inside."

"So what does this have to do with the bet?"

She doesn't like him back.

"Well I really wanted to push myself to ask you out and Seifer found out. He said I didn't have the guts to ask you out and I bet him that I did. We bet last year that I would ask you out before school ended and he was right. I didn't have the guts. But I'm telling you now that I really do like you. Xion, do you want to go out on a date with me?"

She stands up and starts speaking calmly. "Roxas," she pauses and in a burst of rage explodes, "who the hell do you think you are to make a bet like that about me?! Seifer is right! If you had any guts you would've asked me out without trying to force yourself."

Ouch that's harsh.

She turns to face the door. "It's best if you leave right now." Roxas gets up and starts walking down the stairs. I take that as my cue to walk back the way I came and make it seem as though I hadn't been there. As I pretend to walk towards Xion's house for the first time, Roxas is coming out through the front gate and comes my way.

"Hey Roxas!"

"Oh hey what's up man?" he says trying to hide his sadness.

"Not much, just on my way home from work."

"Hey I really appreciate you paying Seifer and I promise I will pay you the money back."

"Nah don't worry about it dude. Think of it as an act of friendship."

"Oh. Ok thanks. But don't think I'm not going to try to pay you back."

"If that's the case, how about you buy me some new Jordan's?"

He laughs. "Hey it's only fifty dollars."

"I'm kidding bro. Well I've got to get going home. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"Alright man, see you later."

We pass by each other and walk away. To be honest I don't want him paying me back because he's got enough problems to deal with without having a debt over his shoulders. I hope he's not suicidal or something like that.

I get home at 8:28 and see that Jack's mom left me dinner so I heat it up in the microwave and turn the TV on and change the channel to MTV2 to watch some Guy Court. Jack's younger sisters, Jane and Jocelyn are asleep already so I make sure to keep the volume relatively low. The microwave beeps so I rush over and take the food out. I sit on the couch and start relaxing.

"So you knew that it was his girl?"

"Well yeah but—"

"Why the f*** you didn't lie?!"

I start cracking up and hear a door open which turns out to be Jack.

"What's up bro?" he asks.

"Not much. Just eating dinner and watching Guy Court."

"Which one is it?"

"The one where this dude told his friend's girlfriend that his friend was on a date with a side chick."

"Haven't seen that one."

"Well there's lots of couch man." We sit there watching TV and laughing. "Hey where's Noah?"

"You know how he is. He finished his homework and knocked out."

"Oh." I finish eating so I go to the kitchen and clean my plate. I go back to the living room and sit down. "Hey can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"Do you believe that nice guys finish last?"

He paused for a bit and looked directly at the TV. He wasn't even watching it. He was just looking at it. Finally he responded, "Yeah. I kind of do." More silence. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason. Kind of just came up today."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Well I think I'm going to get some sleep."

"Yeah me too."

Jack and I brush our teeth and go to our room where we see Noah asleep in his bunk already. I climb up to the top and Jack hops onto his bed. To be honest I wasn't even asleep. I just stared at the roof worrying about Roxas and thinking about what the next day was going to be like. I mean the first day and already two of our friends got into a bit of an argument. Eventually I end up falling asleep.


	5. Awkward

**Chapter 5: Awkward-Jack**

I sit at the table eating Lucky Charms while Noah and Aero pour themselves each a bowl of cereal. I mindlessly dip my spoon into the bowl and pull it up without getting any pieces of cereal. Just milk.

"Hey dude, are you ok?" Aero asks.

"Yeah."

"You don't look okay," he responds.

"I just didn't get that much sleep last night." Or any at all for that matter. I couldn't stop thinking about nice guys finishing last. I mean first Selphie says it when we were talking about Roxas and Xion and then Aero brings it up out of nowhere. Did he maybe talk to someone about Roxas and Xion. Did he talk to them himself?

"You should've gone to bed early like me," says Noah.

"Yeah but then I would be lame." Aero laughs but he seemed pretty tired too. Come to think of it, he didn't snore that much last night like usual. Maybe he was thinking about nice guys finishing last too.

My mom walks into the kitchen and says, "You boys better hurry up or you'll miss the bus."

"Right!" the three of us finish up and leave the dishes in the sink. "Can you wash them for us mom?" We grab our backpacks. "Thanks! Bye!" We leave the house and go to the bus stop. We stand there for a couple minutes before the bus passes by. I'm so brain dead that I completely miss the perfect opportunity to ask Aero if he knows anything about Roxas and Xion. I take a seat and Noah sits next to me so I can't really ask Aero about it there either. And to add to that, Xion gets on and takes a seat next to Aero.

"Good morning boys" she says cheerfully.

"Mornin' princess" I respond. "Why are you in such a good mood?"

Noah interjects, "That's easy. It's because she's sitting next to Aero."

"Ladies do tend to be in a good mood when they are so close to me" Aero says jokingly. We all chuckle.

"Shut up!" she says as she laughs. "Well why wouldn't I be? It's a pretty nice day."

"No I mean like why are you always happy?"

She speaks in a sarcastic tone "Does it bother you?"

"No, it's nothing like that. I actually really like the positivity. I was just wondering what makes you so happy."

"Oh. Well it's because I don't see a reason to be mad all the time. Life is more fun when you stay positive."

"And that's just the way we like it" replies Noah.

As the bus ride goes on, more of our friends hop in and we get to school. We arrive at the front entrance and see Ventus, Aqua, and Terra standing by the main office so we greet them.

"Hey what's up Ven!" I say enthusiastically.

"Just chilling dude."

"Where's your brother?" I ask.

"He's somewhere inside. As soon as we got here he went walking off into the school."

Maybe he and his brother just hang out with other people. Yeah that's it. No it can't be. We all hang out together. But maybe there are smaller cliques within the bigger group? I mean Ventus did say Roxas and Xion hung out a lot with Axel. Ventus, Aqua, and Terra are all hanging out together. Maybe everyone else is already inside.

"So what are you guys waiting for?" Aero asks.

Terra responds, "The three of us like to hang out here before going inside."

"Oh ok. Whatever floats your guys' boat" he responds making everyone chuckle a bit. Well everyone except me.

Aero, Noah, Xion and I walk through the main office and go to the courtyard where we see Sora, Kairi, Namine, Riku, Roxas, and Axel sitting together at the lunch tables. We walk over to them and everyone greets each other except Xion and Roxas. Coincidence? I think not. They even sat at opposite sides of our little group instead of right next to each other like yesterday. Hayner, Olette, Pence, and Selphie show up and we all start talking until the bell rings and we all go to our homeroom classes. I walk with Sora, Kairi, and Ventus to our homeroom with Mr. Lancer. My teacher has long black dreadlocks, bushy eyebrows, thick sunburns, light skin, violet eyes, and a very rough jawline.

"Good morning Mr. Lancer" Kairi says cheerfully.

He responds sternly but politely, "Good morning."

We all get to our seats and talk about random stuff like how it's a good thing there hasn't been any new mainstream Nicki Minaj songs.

"Alright students" starts Mr. Lancer. "I have an announcement to make. We are having town hall on Friday and for those of you who don't know," he looks at me, "Town hall is when all of the homerooms meet up for an hour on the football field and compete in games or participate in contests. We have one on the first Friday of every month and we need some ideas for activities so I can run them through the other teachers and the principal, Dr. Wise to see which challenges we'll do. Any ideas?"

Ventus speaks up, "How about a potato sack race?"

A random girl adds on, "We could have a jalapeño eating contest."

Kairi joins in, "Yeah and a hula-hoop race!"

We all spitball random ideas until Mr. Lancer says we have enough written down. He looks over the list and puts it on his desk. Homeroom finishes and I head to P.E. with Sora and Kairi. Sora and I go to the boy's locker room and get dressed for P.E.

"Hey Jack?" starts Sora.

"Yeah?"

"What do you think of Kairi?"

Well I know that you're really into her. "She seems pretty chill. Why?"

"I was kind of thinking of asking her out. I mean we practically spent the whole summer together and we are always joking around and sticking close together."

Why was he telling me all of this? We barely met yesterday. "Well if you really like her you should go for it."

"Thanks for the support man. I've sort of been thinking about this for a while so if someone I barely met yesterday already thinks me and Kairi would be good together then I'll go for it."

When did I say you were good together? All I said you should ask her to go out with you if you really like her. I'd better just nod and say yes so that I don't get involved with any of this. Sora and I walk into the gym and sit on some bleachers. Kairi comes out from the girl's locker room and sits next to Sora.

Before we can even get a word out Coach Stalwart starts talking. "Alright everyone get on the court. We're playing dodge ball today."

Sora starts whining, "Aw crap I'm horrible at dodge ball."

Well I know whose team I don't want to be on.

Kairi assures him, "Don't worry Sora you'll do great."

Coach Stalwart breaks us up into teams and guess who got to be on my team? Yeah Sora. And guess who's on the other team? Seifer. And I'm sure he remembers me being at Paopu Paradise yesterday. The game starts and balls go flying. I dodge all of the balls and catch a couple to bring people on my team back but unfortunately, Sora is hit early so he keeps bugging me to bring him back and is hit almost immediately after he steps onto the court. This happens exactly the same way both times. Well since my team is a bunch of pansies, I'm the last one on my team that's still in the game and Seifer's whole crew is still on the other side of the court.

"Alright punk. Any friend of Roxas is an enemy of mine. Let 'em rip!" Seifer and his friends throw all of their balls at the exact same time. I dodge the two coming from Fuu and the short kid. I think his name is Vivi. Then I catch Seifer's ball and block his friend, Rai's ball. "What?! I'm out?!"

"Sit down Seifer" says Coach Stalwart. "Alvarez you get to bring back a teammate."

"Ooh! Me!" yelled Sora. "Pick me! I can help! Me! Buddy! Jack!"

Sigh. "Okay I pick Sora."

"Woohoo!" As soon as Sora steps onto the court Vivi throws a ball and knocks him out of the game. Are you freaking kidding me?! Three times?! You think he would've learned how to dodge by now.

"We'll finish this for Seifer ya' know" says Rai. "Let's do this!" Rai, Fuu, and Vivi throw their balls at me so I throw a ball at Rai and dodge their throws. I manage to hit Rai. Two more to go.

"Sit down Rai. Keep it up Alvarez."

Stay focused. I throw another ball at Fuu but as soon as she moves out of the way, I throw another one that hits her right in the hip.

"You're out Fuu!"

Alright one more. Wait. Where the hell did he go? A ball hits me square in the face and I get knocked back. The hell just happened? When I get back up I see Vivi standing in the corner. That sneaky bastard. I walk over to him and put my hand forward.

"Good game Vivi." He grabs my hand and we shake. I look at Seifer and he seems pissed that his friend is shaking hands with one of his enemies. Good.

We all head to the showers. I take a nice cool shower because I'm sweating bricks. Sora comes up next to me.

"Dude that was freaking awesome! You know the way you took out three people all by yourself."

"Hehe thanks."

"Hey can ask you a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Can you help me become more athletic? I want to impress Kairi."

"Dude she knows you're not athletic and she still supported you. She really likes you."

"I know but I if we get together I want to be a boyfriend she can really be proud of. You see Riku is her ex and well, you've seen him. He's tall and has muscles. How can I compete with that?"

"You've just got to be yourself. That's who she'll really like."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"Thanks man…Can you pass the soap?"

After P.E., I walk with Sora and Kairi to the hang out spot and we sit there with all our friends. Roxas and Xion are still sitting far away from each other. Something definitely happened between them last night. I'm guessing he told her how he feels. You never do that. Especially if you've been friends for years.

"So guys, I was thinking," starts Axel, "Since we're back in school, how about we have a party at my place? Like a homecoming before the school's homecoming."

"That sounds awesome!" exclaims Xion.

"Yeah I can finally wear the new dress I bought!" adds Kairi.

"I'm liking the sound of this part already" says Aero. I notice that Sora looks at him sternly. Hey if he doesn't handle Kairi I know Aero sure as hell will.

"Same here" says Axel. "Alright so guys in free before 11:00 and girls in free all night." The girls squeal. "But you have to wear tight dresses." The guys start laughing.

"Oh hell no!" exclaims Xion. You did not just say that!"

"Why yes I did shorty. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to wear the ugliest shirt I can find to your party."

"Security won't let you through."

"And by security do you mean Hayner and Pence?" asks Kairi.

Everyone laughs as Axel mumbles, "Maybe."

"And you'll get everything ready right Axel?" asks Xion.

"Don't you worry a hair on that pretty little head of yours. I've got everything covered."

The bell rings and everyone walks to class—everyone except Roxas and Axel. I know it's not my place but now I'm really curious about this Roxas-Xion thing.


	6. Town Hall

**Chapter 6: Town Hall-Aero **

Today's Friday so my adopted brothers and I are going to have our first town hall and our first party at Twilight Town High School. Am I excited? Not really. I don't get too excited for many things. I just let things happen as they go. I am a little excited to see Kairi in a tight dress tonight though. I haven't really had much time to talk to her because Sora is always by her side but we do have Statistics together. She skipped two years of math so she's in Stats with me and Axel which is cool because we joke around and have fun in that class. Kairi and I have had some close interactions like when we started working on our project for Stats at her place yesterday but other than that, I haven't really gotten to talk to her. I don't know what it is about her that makes me think about her so much. Is it those deep blue eyes or that flawless skin? Or maybe those adorable dimples she gets when she smiles. I don't know but I have to find out.

As I walk through the empty halls putting up copies of the list the challenges and contestants for the town hall, I notice a bright red hue in the corner of my eye followed by the sound of sniffling. I turn to my right to see Kairi crying as she wipes tears away with her left hand and holds a piece of paper in her right.

"Hey, Kairi," I pause, "Are you alright?"

"No. She looks down at the paper for a moment then hands it to me and turns her head slightly away."

I read over it and to my horrific shock, it's full of hurtful words I shouldn't even say and at the top, is Kairi's name. It's written in different writing utensils, colors, handwriting so it must be the work of more than one girl. I look at her speechless and she continues crying.

"I found that paper in the girls' bathroom on the mirror and I just didn't know what to think." She sniffles. "I don't even know why someone would write this about me." She looks down.

After a moment, I tell her, "Hey, Kai." She looks up at me with hot tears still rolling down her cheeks. When I get her attention, I crumple up the paper in front of her. "This is what you should think of this list and the girls who wrote it." I turn around and toss the crumpled piece of paper to the farthest trash can I could find and making it in. I could've made it in the one that was about fifteen feet away or the next closest one but I aimed for the last one to make a point. "That list is garbage and those girls are garbage, and you should definitely stay as far away from them as possible."

"But I don't know who wrote it."

"See that's the beauty of having friends. You only hang out with your friends because they have your back. Forget everyone else who even crosses you badly." She nods and finally cracks a smile.

I get back to putting up the lists when I notice Kairi still hasn't left yet. She gets closer to me.

"Aero," she starts. I turn to my right again and she immediately hugs me. "Thank you."

I smile and hug her back. "You're welcome." We let go of each other. "If you ever need a friend," I pause shortly, "You know you've got Jack and Noah right?"

She gives me a full sized smile and punches me in the arm. "Well tell them I said they're good friends."

"Will do." She starts to walk in the direction where she was headed before we started talking. "Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

"Class."

"Well you can't go like that." She moves her hand under her nose. "I know what'll make you feel better. Come with me." I take her by the hand and lead her out of campus.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"We'll be back in time for town hall. No one will even notice that we're gone." I take her to Paopu Paradise.

"Hey don't you work here?"

"Why yes I do. I get employ discount here."

A man in his forties wearing the Paopu Paradise uniform looks up from his phone and says, "Welcome to Paopu Paradise. What can I get for y—" He looks at me. "Shouldn't you be in school right now Aero?"

"Shouldn't you be married by now Arnold?" Kairi looks worried at how I spoke to him but he starts laughing which confuses her a little

"Fair enough. Is this your girlfriend?"

Kairi's cheeks turned bright red. "No she's just my friend. She was having a little trouble so I thought a smoothie might cool her down."

"Alright sounds good bro. What can I get for you?"

"What do you want Kai?"

"I think I'll get a Paopu Mango Madness."

"Make that two, Arnold."

"Alright. Will you be using your employee discount?"

"Yeah." I pay for the smoothies, take my receipt and get a table with Kairi. About a minute later, Arnold calls my order number so I get the smoothies and sit back down with Kairi. I sit against a wall so I can see everything else inside the store. I look out the window and see Mr. Xehanort and the principal, Dr. Wise, coming towards Paopu Paradise. Dr. Wise is a tall blonde man with a rigid face, a goatee, and piercing red eyes. He usually wears a lab coat with a red scarf over.

"Oh shit!" I say.

"What?"

"The principal and vice principal are coming."

"What?! They must know we're gone!"

"No they don't seem to be searching. Probably just came for a treat. Here put on my hoodie." I take off my hoodie and hand it to her. She puts it on quickly and covers her head with the hood. I stay low. Dr. Wise and Mr. Xehanort walk in without noticing us as we keep sipping at our smoothies trying to be as calm and unsuspicious as possible. Mr. Xehanort looks around the restaurant and looks over at us.

I whisper to Kairi, "Shit he's looking."

She whispers back, "What are we going to do?"

Arnold asks them for their order and Dr. Wise replied, "Two sea-salt ice-creams please." Mr. Xehanort tries to see our faces.

"He keeps looking over here."

"This is bad!" She whispers.

I look at Mr. Xehanort then back at Kairi and smile.

"What?"

"I think I've got an idea." I grab her face and pull it closer to mine until our lips meet and we kiss. We stay there making out for a few seconds before I open my eyes and see Mr. Xehanort look away. Arnold gives them their orders and they walk out before I let go of Kairi and pull away still looking at Dr. Wise and Mr. Xehanort. I look back at Kairi to find my hands and a huge grin on her face. I move my hands, "Sorry about that."

Her cheeks are beaming red as she responds, "No, don't be. It saved us." She smiles sweetly. We finish our smoothies and make our way back to school avoiding the main office. We make it in easily and walk through the halls.

"That was crazy you know Aero?"

"Yeah but it worked." We both laugh a little. "And besides I didn't hear you complain about it back there."

She blushed again. "Yeah well anyway I've got to get to class."

"Yeah me too. Mr. Chill is probably wondering where I am."

"Alright then see you at the town hall."

"You too." We hug and start walking to our respective classes.

"Oh and there's no way you'll beat me in the potato sack race she calls out."

I look at the list and see both our names are under the potato sack race. "We'll see." We both smile and walk to class. When I arrive, I knock on the door and Mr. Chill opens it.

"Well. I'm glad someone decided chemistry was important enough to show up."

"I was putting up the lists for the town hall challenges and contestants for Mr. Arrow."

"I thought he was your homeroom teacher. It's third period!"

"He's also my English teacher which I have right before this class." He scowls at me. For someone with "Chill" as a last name he definitely isn't.

"Very well then have your seat." Mr. Chill starts talking about atoms and I'm paying attention until Terra, my lab partner, starts talking to me.

"Dude Mr. Arrow sent you out at the beginning of second period. Where have you been?"

"I'll tell you after class. I don't want Mr. Chill hearing."

"Alright. But don't forget."

I chuckle. "Don't worry I won't." Class finishes so Terra and I head to the football field for town hall.

"Alright so what were you doing?"

"Well I was putting up the lists when Kairi walked over to me crying about some stupid list some girls wrote in the girls' bathroom."

"What did the list say?"

"All these hurtful words about Kairi."

"Ouch. That sucks."

"Yeah so I decided to take her to Paopu Paradise to cheer her up."

"Did it work?"

"Yeah she seemed to have forgotten about the list by the time we came back."

"So were you helping her get over the list or trying to handle?"

I look at him "Dude!"

"Sorry! Had to ask." We both laugh.

"And I wasn't trying because I got to kiss her."

His eyes widen. "You're lying!"

"Nope."

"What?! Sora's been trying to get a kiss for years and you get one in five days?!"

"Hey not so loud dude. And it wasn't a real kiss. Dr. Wise and Mr. Xehanort walked into the restaurant so I gave her my hoodie to hide her crazy colored hair and kissed her so the principals wouldn't look over at us.

"And she was cool with that?"

"Well she didn't fight it and I'm pretty sure I saw her blushing."

"Yeah! That's my boy!" We get to the town hall and sit with our homerooms like we were told to do this morning. Terra and I find Aqua and sit next to her. I look around and see my adopted brothers sitting with some of our friends.

I find Kairi and she looks back at me. We both smile at each other so Aqua follows my eyes to see Kairi and says, "So that's what happened to your sweater!"

"Yeah our little man is going to get with Kairi."

"That's great!" she hugs me.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I am not getting with Kairi. I don't even know if she likes me like that."

"Dude you kissed her."

"You guys kissed?!"

"Yeah but it was so Dr. Wise and Mr. Xehanort wouldn't look over at us." Aqua looks at me confused so I tell her the whole story.

"Aero. She likes you."

"What? No way Aqua. It was a circumstantial kiss."

"I've known Kairi for two years now and if she didn't like you, she would've slapped you on the spot."

"Listen to her Aero. Her blue hair gives her knowledge."

We all laugh and Aqua slaps his arm, "Shut up!"

"Well there is that party tonight. I guess I can make my move."

"You better get with her, not sleep with her because if you hurt my friend I'll kill you."

I look at the blue haired woman and she is dead serious. Gulp. "Yes ma'am."

The town hall starts and Dr. Wise begins to speak. He has a very deep voice but it's very mellow and soothing. "Good morning Twilight Town High School! Today is the first town hall of the year. Is everyone ready to have fun?" His voice was serious but I couldn't help but get excited. The rest of the school would have to agree. "We have a long year ahead of us filled with hard work, but today, we play, compete, bond, and most important, have fun together as a school!" Everyone cheers.

Mr. Xehanort steps up and says, "Okay so the first challenge will be the hula-hoop race. Contestants go to the hula-hoops that your homerooms teachers are standing by and get ready for the race." Jack and Sora get up from the grass and walk over to Mr. Lancer. Aqua and some other students from my homeroom walk over to Mr. Arrow.

Terra watches Aqua walk away and says, "I hope we see some funny falls."

Once the contestants are all in their hula-hoops, Mr. Xehanort begins speaking again, "Alright contestants. On your marks, get set, go!" The contestants start running and from the start, some trip and fall. Mr. Arrow and Mr. Lancer's homeroom teams take the lead until Sora trips making his team fall and our team passes the finish line. Our entire homeroom stands up and starts cheering. This is honestly more fun than I thought it would be. We go through the egg tossing and balloon stomping contests and then the potato sack race comes up. I walk up to Mr. Arrow and notice that I'll be racing against Kairi, Noah, Selphie, and Axel.

Kairi and I look at each other. She points at me and mouths "You" and then points downwards with her thumb while mouthing the word "Down." I smile and respond by point to myself and move my arms as though I'm running quickly then point back at her, tilt my head, place my hands under it, and make snoring noises. We smile and get ready for the race.

Mr. Xehanort and the rest of the school chant, "On your mark! Get set! Go!" All of the racers take off. Some trip quickly while others move along the field at a fast pace. Axel is in the lead followed by me and Kairi, then Noah, then Selphie, and finally all the other competitors. Axel trips so I take advantage and zip past him. Kairi falls so I look back and slip accidentally right when I'm about to cross. Noah comes in fast so I start crawling my way to the finish line and in a photo finish, I win by a tongue.

"Better luck next time little cousin."

"You won by a nut hair" he teases back. I pat him on the back and we laugh together.

Kairi approaches us. "That was some pretty good tongue stretching back there."

Weird but I'll roll with it. "You haven't even seen what I can do with my tongue." I wink at her and she turns as bright as a tomato while Noah cracks up.

Kairi starts walking toward her team when Noah asks me, "Wait isn't that your sweater?"

I chuckle and scratch the back of my head. "Uh, yeah. I guess it is." A huge grin stretches across his face.

"Hey Kai, I'm gonna' need my sweater back."

She turns around smiling and says, "But it's so warm. How about I hold onto it until the party?"

"Alright but I charge by the hour."

She giggles and says, "Alright I'll pay you later."

We all go back to our homerooms and continue with town hall until the last competition which is a game of red light, green light. Jack wins that one bringing his team the most victories. After the town hall, we are released to lunch. The rest of the day is pretty boring mostly because now I'm pretty excited for the party.


	7. Preparation

**Here comes part 2 of 3-part event and it looks like everything turned out great for Aero! Now let's see how Noah's night turns out and if he'll be able to impress the lovely Namine. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, The Bacchanal Part 2! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 9: The Bacchanal Part 2-Noah**

I sit in the back seat of my adoptive father's silver Corolla playing Flow on my phone while Jack is texting and Aero drives. As soon as we arrive at Axel's house Aero starts lecturing us about not doing anything we'd regret. He's right but I hate it when he gets like this. It's like bringing our mom with us. Aero and Jack finally stop bickering so we walk through the side of the house to the backyard where the music is coming from. There are lots of people and everyone seems to be having a good time but I see lots of red cups which can only mean one thing. Beer.

We wander through the crowd until Aero catches sight of Xion and tells us to follow him to her. When we get there, a group of our friends are sitting together our table. The girls look hot but Namine looks absolutely amazing! She's wearing a bright blue dress and white high heels. I can't believe it's her wearing that!

Aero, Jack, and I say hello to everyone but Namine gets a special hug. It's more of a long, tight, warm embrace than a hug. I finish hugging Xion when she says, "I was wondering when you punks would show up!"

Xion and Aero like to play around with each other so my cousin tells her, "Stop lying! You were desperately waiting for me to come and clean your juicer!"

I take a seat as they continue talking back to each other and look across the table at Namine. She looks at me, blushes as she smiles, and looks down then back up at me. Everyone starts laughing so I act casual and pretend to laugh along. Aero and Kairi are the only ones standing. Yeah it's that obvious that they're into each other.

Xion is as outspoken as always because she asks Aero, "So you give Noah and Jack a ride but not me, Aero?"

"Well I kind of have to." He replies.

Jack and I respond at the same time, "Hey!"

It turns out that my brothers and I forgot to tell our friends that Jack's parents adopted me and Aero. Aero explains the situation to them and they finally understand why Jack and I always seemed to know where Aero would be. I guess they all thought we were just really close friends.

When Aero finishes explaining, Axel comes offering drinks and Aero seems uneasy. Jack and I both look at him waiting for his response and I can tell Jack is ready to taste his first sip of liquor. I wouldn't mind having my first sip either but I'm a little worried about Jack. One drink might lead to another.

Aero finally responds. "I guess one won't hurt. But only one man. Nothing more."

Axel smiles genuinely, "Alright man, I can respect that. I sort of see Roxas and Xion as my little brothers so I feel responsible for them."

"I'm a girl!" yells Xion.

Axel looks at her with a huge grin and says, "I said what I meant." We all laugh as Axel sets down some shot glasses for all of us and pours a bit of Vodka into each one. He raises his glass. "To family and friends." We mimic him and all drink. "Yeah! Now let's keep the party going!" Axel goes to the DJ, Demyx, and tells him to play "Simple and Clean" to pump everyone up.

Two by two, my friends go up to dance. Sora tugs Kairi—obviously away from Aero—Olette almost skips to the dance floor as Hayner follows closely, Selphie quickly jumps on the opportunity to dance with Jack, and finally perky little Xion asks Aero to dance. The only two people left at our table are Namine and I and we're pretty quiet for a bit. I'm really bad when it comes to talking to girls. I get really nervous and don't know what to say. And because it's Namine, I'm even more nervous! I mean she's absolutely beautiful! Her hair, her eyes, her slim stomach and curvy waste. She's perfect!

She and I watch our friends in silence as they dance around. Oh geez is Aero doing the Carlton? He did that at our cousin's quinceañera but he slipped on beer that one of our uncles spilled. I really miss those family parties. My and Aero's dads would hang out by the barbeque drinking beer with our uncles and our moms would play Spanish bingo with our aunts. Aero and I would hang out with our cousins watching movies or messing around, making each other laugh. After the incident, Aero and I would still go to those parties with Jack's family because they were good friends of our family but it just wasn't the same. That's part of the reason why I was glad to leave Traverse Town. I can take the loss better if I'm not in the same city where it happened.

I finally snap back to reality and look over to Namine who keeps staring at our friends. I'm surprised someone else hasn't come to ask her to dance yet. I mean look at her! Namine notices I'm looking at her so she looks back at me and smiles sweetly but shyly.

I break the silence by asking her, "Looks like they're having lots of fun huh?" Is that really the best I can come up with?! Of course they're having fun! They're up there dancing!

She keeps smiling, "Yeah. Our friends sure no how to have a good time."

There's a slight pause before I ask, "I'm sure we can show them we can have a good time too." She looks at me in slight confusion but seems to know where this is going. "You want to go dance?" She smiles and nods as we go up there and join our circle of friends. I feel adrenaline pumping as I get a little too excited and yes. I dance like MC Hammer. I hop out of the circle to dance next to Namine and she smiles at me. I'll take that as a good sign.

Axel jumps in and starts doing a mix between shuffling and dubstep dancing. "They don't call me the Flurry of Dancing Flames for nothing!" I have never heard anyone call him that before but hey it's a party! We're here to have fun!

After about ten minutes, everyone sits down except for Xion and Axel who are still dancing like idiots.

"Hey Aero can you get me a soda?" asks Jack.

"Yeah sure what do you want?"

"Pepsi."

I add on, "Make that two bro." Before Aero goes, I ask Namine, "You want one?"

"No I'm okay. Thank you."

Aero goes to get a soda and after a few seconds pass, Kairi goes to get a drink too. Sora definitely doesn't look happy.

Jack decides to talk to him. "Hey what's up bro?!"

"Nothing much man. What about you?"

"Same dude just chilling." There's a short pause.

"You having fun?" I add on.

He looks at me for a moment before responding. He forces a smile as he says, "Yeah, I'm having fun dude. How about you?"

"I'm having fun too."

That's when Namine tells me she has to go to the restroom. As she leaves all of us guys except Hayner watch her walk away. I couldn't really concentrate with Sora and Jack staring at her ass. I was actually getting pretty jealous and I could feel my face turn serious. When Sora and Jack turn their attention back to me, I quickly calm myself down.

Sora starts talking. "So you and Namine huh?"

I try my best not to show my excitement at that statement. "Well we're just talking," I say casually.

Jack wants to laugh. "No way dude! She's crazy hot and she chooses to hang out with you! She wants the D!" He has a way with words doesn't he? My eyes shift to Olette who looks disgusted by his sexist remark towards her friend but she lets it slide and stays quiet.

I can't help but to smile at that. "Come on man. It's no big deal."

Olette joins the conversation saying, "Noah, you don't know how many guys have tried getting at her. She is one of the toughest girls in school to impress. And it doesn't help that her dad is the principal."

Jack and I look at each other, then at her and say in unison, "Wait! What?!"

"Yup Dr. Wise is her dad which is why she keeps her grades up. She'd hate to disappoint her dad slash the principal."

As Olette finishes, Aero and Kairi come back and sit down. Shortly after, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus come over from the dance floor—I haven't even noticed them at the party—and Namine returns from the restroom. Terra invites us all to dance so everyone except Sora, Kairi, Hayner, and Olette goes to the dance floor. Namine and I are the last to leave and I overhear the four talking about Roxas. Ever since Monday, Roxas has been getting distant and now I'm getting curious about why.

I dance with the group until Demyx says, "Alright we're going to slow things down a bit as requested by Axel and the vicious Larxene. He plays "Diamonds," by Rihanna and couples start slow dancing.

Namine and I look at each other and then we turn our attention to the couples around us dancing closely together. We look back at each other and I ask, "May I have this dance?" She gladly accepts as she wraps her fingers around the back of my neck and I put my hands on her waist. I've never slow danced with a girl before but I really like it. Her head wrests against my cheek as we sway back and forth holding each other closely. I don't feel so nervous with her right now because being here with her right now feels natural.

The song ends but Larxene demands another slow dance so she can cling to Axel. I'm not complaining because I get to keep dancing with Namine. After that song ends, Demyx decides to play a more, um, energetic song. The kind that girls can use as an excuse to grind on guys. As the song begins, I look at Namine feeling really uncomfortable and I can tell that she feels the same so we decide to have a seat with Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. I'm actually kind of relieved that Namine and Aqua don't dance that way. They seem way too nice to do that. Kairi on the other hand completely surprises me as she grinds on…wait Aero? Hmm. I wonder where Sora is.

As the others dance, it's pretty quiet between me and Namine. Finally I ask her, "Hey so, I know this is out of the blue but is Dr. Wise your dad?"

"Yeah…" There's a short pause after she responds.

"Well I think that's pretty awesome!" I say trying to sound enthusiastic.

She smiles noting my effort. "It's a good thing and a bad thing."

"How so?"

"Well it's a good thing because him being principal gives me a reason to work hard in school. And I've always had whatever I've asked for even though I don't ask for much. I was never into electronics and fancy things except my phone." She holds up her iPhone.

"And the bad part?"

"Well because my dad is the principal, he can find out whatever he wants about any boy at school which is pretty intimidating. Because of it, I've never had a boyfriend."

I look down trying to figure out what to say. Maybe I can be the first? No. She'll think I'm a creep. I finally reply by saying, "Well being in a relationship is nice," not that I would know but Jack has always seemed happy with his girlfriends, "but it's fun to be single and enjoy life without being chained down. Besides when you finally meet the guy you really like and he really likes you, he'll make sure to be able to impress your dad no matter what it takes because honestly, I think you're worth the struggle. Any guy would be lucky to be with you."

She smiles and blushes before suddenly hugging me. "Thank you, Noah."

I smile warmly and hug her back. "Yeah. You're welcome, Namine."

A few minutes pass by before Aero and Kairi come sit down. I'm talking to Namine about mimes—don't ask how we got into that conversation—when Aero nudges me and shows me the time. 12:10?! Time flies when you're having fun. I nod at Aero to show that I understand that we have to leave and he goes to tell Jack.

"Hey Namine, my brothers and I sort of told my adoptive mother that we would leave the party by 12:00."

"Oh, ok. Well I had lots of fun tonight."

"Yeah me too." I give her a big hug before asking her, "So I'll see you tomorrow for the project?"

"Yeah. Where should we meet?"

"Does Paopu Paradise sound good? I can probably get Aero to give me a discount."

"Ok. Sounds great!"

"Alright see you later." I walk away and say goodbye to all my other friends. Aero, Jack, and I get inside the car and head home. I think tonight was pretty successful.

**I'd say Noah had lots of fun tonight am I right?! Sure he didn't get a kiss like Aero but he's taking a step in the right direction! So let's find out what Jack was up to at this party besides obviously getting grinded on by Selphie.**


	8. The Bacchanal-Part 1

**Hey everyone! This is the first chapter of a three part event! Each part shows the same event but from a different point of view. Now I hope you all enjoy it and remember to review!**

**Chapter 8: The Bacchanal Part 1-Aero**

I look straight ahead to the road in front of us while Jack texts some friends in the passenger seat and Noah plays on his phone in the back.

Siri's monotone voice said, "Turn left in point four miles."

I make the left and go onto Sunset Avenue in Sunset Terrace. I go all the way to the top of the hill, following Siri's instructions, and find flashing lights and loud music coming from the backyard of a two-story house near the cliff.

Jack looks up from his phone. "This party is going to be freaking awesome man!"

"Remember, mom said to come home at twelve," I reply, "And I prefer to stay on her good side."

Jack opens the car door and replies in an irritating manner, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

I exit the car and look at him sternly. "I'm serious. I'm pretty sure she won't let us come to these things if we mess up this time."

"Yeah I guess you're right," he replies.

"Of course I am. Oh and no drinking or drugs," I point to them, "Because I won't cover for you if you do something stupid."

"Can we just go in already?" asked Jack.

I smile and look at Jack then at Noah. "Yeah." We walk through the side of the house and enter the backyard where we see lots of young people. I'm not even sure if most of them are teenagers. Jack, Noah, and I walk through the crowd of people and spot Sora, Kairi, Namine, Xion, Olette, Hayner, and Selphie all sitting at table enjoying some drinks. I'm pretty sure that's not juice. Xion sees us walking through and waves to us. The three of us walk over and greet everybody. The last person I say hi to is Kairi and she looks absolutely stunning with her short black dress and beaming red lipstick. I see that she still has my red hoodie but she isn't wearing it. I guess not to make Sora jealous I walk over to her and she gives me a long hug.

Xion finishes hugging Noah. "I was wondering when you punks would show up."

I look at her. "Stop lying! You were desperately waiting for me to come and clean your juicer!"

"The fruit man isn't going to impress me with his little banana."

"I'm sure you'd like to see that now wouldn't you?"

We all laugh along. I hadn't even noticed until now that Kairi and I are still standing and very close, if I may add. I step away slightly and Kairi sits down. I look around to find a seat on the couch so Kairi scoots over and I sit down between her and Selphie.

"So you give Noah and Jack a ride but not me, Aero?" asks Xion.

"Well I kind of have to." I reply.

Jack and Noah respond at the same time, "Hey!"

Everyone else looks at me puzzled.

Selphie asks, "Why's that? Did you lose a bet or something?"

Jack and Noah reply again, "Hey!"

Now I look at her puzzled. Wait! I just remembered that we never told them Jack, Noah, and I are adoptive brothers. "Oh ok! Sorry for not telling you guys before but Jack, Noah, and I all live together."

They look at my adoptive brothers and I in shock. Xion replies, "Wait you guys are brothers?!"

Jack, Noah, and I all look at each other and start laughing.

Noah says, "Well yes, but no." They all look confused. "We're adoptive brothers. Jack's parents adopted me and Aero."

I can feel Kairi gazing at me while the others try to assess the situation. Selphie replies, "But you and Aero are brothers right?"

I respond, "Nope. Cousins. Our uh," I look down then back at her. "Both our parents were killed when I was seven and Noah was five and Jack's parents were close to ours so they decided to adopt us."

Xion remarks teasingly, "Well that's good news because we were thinking ya'll were in the closet or something."

I smile and reply raising the pitch of my voice adding a hint of femininity and remark, "Sorry honey but I don't swing that way!" as I raise my arm and let my hand hang.

As Jack laughs he says, "Yeah we don't know him. We barely met him today."

I laugh and respond to him now in a sarcastically serious tone, "Boy, don't be afraid to tell them about us."

Noah yells out, "Just for the record I knew nothing about this!" as he gestures with his index finger pointing between me and Jack back in forth.

As everyone continues laughing at our stupid jokes, Jack says, "Ay Aero stop, you're making Xion jealous."

Xion smiles and looks at me and says, "Honey what you do in your spare time is your business."

After the laughter from our group dies down a little, Kairi picks up the conversation going back to Jack, Noah, and I being brothers. "So uh, you guys are practically brothers now right?"

I smile warmly. "Well it feels like that now. These two guys right here are definitely brothers to me."

They smile back at me as the girls say, "Aw."

"Well how about we toast to friends and family then?" I hear Axel say as he walks up to the group with a bottle of Vodka in his hand.

I smile and respond politely, "Sorry bro but I'm driving and I'd get into crazy trouble if my adoptive parents smelled even a little alcohol on these dopes."

Xion replies, "Oh come on mom! Just one shot won't hurt anyone right?"

Noah and Jack look at me waiting for a response. I can already tell what each of them is thinking by the looks on their faces. Noah looks worried which tells me he definitely isn't sure about this but wants to at the same time maybe as an act of establishing our coolness amongst our friends. Jack has a look of anticipation on his face so he is definitely hoping for a yes.

"I guess one won't hurt. But only one man. Nothing more."

Axel smiles genuinely, "Alright man, I can respect that. I sort of see Roxas and Xion as my little brothers so I feel responsible for them."

"I'm a girl!" yells Xion.

Axel looks at her with a huge grin and says, "I said what I meant." We all laugh as Axel sets down some shot glasses for all of us and pours a bit of Vodka into each one. He raises his glass. "To family and friends." We mimic him and all drink. "Yeah! Now let's keep the party going!" Axel goes to the DJ, Demyx, and tells him to play "Simple and Clean" to pump everyone up.

Kairi looks at me as though she wants to dance but then Sora tugs at her arm and they go dance for a few minutes. Olette goes with Hayner, Selphie snatches Jack and Xion comes over to me.

"Want to go dance juice boy?"

"Sounds good to me shorty." She takes my hand and we dance for a bit. The eight of us get into a small circle and show off our moves no matter how stupid they are. Xion does an impressive robot, Hayner break dances, I do the Carlton which gets a few laughs, and Jack shuffles. A few minutes pass when I notice Noah and Namine join the circle too and Noah goes in dancing like MC Hammer.

Axel jumps in and starts doing a combination between shuffling and dubstep dancing. "They don't call me the Flurry of Dancing Flames for nothing!"

After about ten minutes pass, everyone except Axel and Xion sit down. I go to the cooler to grab some sodas for me and my adoptive brothers but when I turn around crimson hair appears right in front of me. Startled, I jump back a bit.

"What a wuss!" Kairi exclaims.

"Well Halloween is coming up so I thought you were just practicing." I tease.

Her mouth opens wide into one of those "I can't believe you said that smile" and she hits me on the arm, which doesn't really hurt, as she says, "Jerk!" She still has her smile.

"I'm kidding!" I reply. "You'd probably get the Halloween Award for most beautiful."

Her cheeks turn bright red and she looks down at the drinks in my hand then at me. "So is one of those for me?" She points at the sodas.

"Sure," I reply giving her a Pepsi. I pick up another one for Jack and we stand there talking for a bit before we walk back to the table. I give Jack and Noah their drinks and sit down noticing Namine is gone. I look over at the dance floor to find Xion and Axel are still dancing like dorks but now Aqua, Terra, and Ventus are there in too. Aqua notices me so she comes over to say hi. Terra and Ventus follow and greet me and my brothers too. At this point, Namine comes back and greets the trio.

Aqua asks "Where have you guys been this whole time?"

"Uh right here" I say chuckling a little. "What about you guys?"

Ventus replies, "We were with my brother and his friends." He points over to Roxas and his new group of friends sitting by the DJ booth. I notice a serious look on Sora, Kairi, Hayner, Olette, Selphie and Namine's faces.

Terra breaks the odd mood by saying, "So you all want to go dance?"

"Sure I'm in." I reply.

Jack, Noah, Selphie, and Namine come along. Sora, Kairi, Hayner, and Olette stay back and talk about something. Strange. Xion catches me by the arm.

"Well I was about to sit down but the party came back."

I look at her surprised and reply, "Little girl, huge energy." She laughs and we all keep dancing. Kairi soon joins in but Sora, Hayner, Olette stay seated.

Demyx speaks on the microphone. "Alright we're going to slow things down a bit as requested by Axel and the vicious Larxene. He plays "Diamonds," by Rihanna and couples start slow dancing. Selphie clings onto Jack, Noah dances with Namine, Axel and Larxene get close, Olette and Hayner come together, and Sora walks over and stands between me and Kairi. Well that was rude. I see Terra, Aqua, and Ventus sitting down so I go sit down next to them and watch the others. Xion comes over to and sits next to me.

"How come you ain't up there dancing juice boy?"

I look at her and smile. "Why aren't you?"

"No one's asked me." Just then, Riku walks over and extends his hand in front of her. Without either of them saying a word, Xion takes his hand and they go dance. Oh he's smooth.

"How come you guys aren't dancing?"

Aqua replies, "I don't really feel like slow dancing right now." I look over at Terra and he has a serious look on his face.

I drink my soda and watch the others dance but I see Sora running inside the house with his hands holding his stomach. I look at Kairi who has a confused and sad expression on her face. I notice Kairi turn to me and the others catch sight of it.

Aqua sounds excited as she says, "Well what are you waiting for? Go with her!" I turn to my friends who all have huge grins on their faces.

"Now's your chance dude!" says Terra.

I smile and nod then get up and walk over to Kairi. "May I have this dance?" I ask politely.

She smiles, nods, and takes my right hand with her left hand while her right hand goes on my shoulder and her head tucks under my chin. We dance for about two minutes but that moment feels like it's lasting for an eternity as we sway back and forth in each other's grasp. Her head fits neatly under my chin like a key in a keyhole.

The song finishes but Larxene isn't happy about it. "Play another one moron!" she yells at Demyx.

Demyx speaks into the microphone again. "As her royal pain in the ass requests, I'll play another slow song so get comfortable." He starts playing "Fix You," by Coldplay. Kairi and I join back together and continue dancing to the music. After this song ends, Larxene demands for another one but Demyx refuses.

"I'm going to kick this party up, Larxene. But don't worry you can still be ratchet." He gets the crowd laughing and the song "That Chick," by David Guetta and Rihanna. Oh yes now girls start grinding on guys. I am completely shocked but pleased as Kairi turns around and starts grinding on me. I grab her by the hips and dance with her sensually. I look over to find Jack and Selphie dancing the same as well as Xion and Riku, Olette and Hayner, and Axel and Larxene. Soon that song finishes too so I decide to have a seat and Kairi joins me. I look at my phone to see that its 12:10. I'm sure Jack's mom won't be mad but only if we leave now. I turn to Noah and show him my phone so he nods.

"Hey Kairi I've got to get going. Jack's mom told us to leave at twelve and I don't want her thinking we're irresponsible."

"Yeah don't worry about it." She looks down then at me. "So I guess I'll see you at school?"

"Yeah, I reply." As I get up she says, "Oh Wait! I forgot to give you your hoodie back." She hands me my sweater.

"So where's my payment?"

She giggles and stands up. "Right here," she closes her eyes and leans in. I do the same and we kiss. It feels as though time stands still as we stand there kissing, breathing life into each other with every movement of our lips. Finally we pull away slowly and look into each other's eyes.

"Hey uh, Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"I get off of work at 4:00 tomorrow. Do you want to catch a movie?"

"Sure that would be great! Text me when you get off of work."

"I don't have your number."

"Oh! Here, let me give it to you." I take out my phone and hand it to her so she can put her number in.

I put my phone away and say, "Alright see you later." I walk away and go tell Jack that we have to go. He hugs Selphie and we all say our goodbyes before we get into the car and leave.

**Well that's part 1! The next chapter is the same party but from Noah's point of view. While Aero was spending time with Kairi, we'll see what Noah was up to.**


	9. The Bacchanal-Part 2

**Here comes part 2 of 3-part event and it looks like everything turned out great for Aero! Now let's see how Noah's night turns out and if he'll be able to impress the lovely Namine. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, The Bacchanal Part 2! Enjoy!**

**Chapter 9: The Bacchanal Part 2-Noah**

I sit in the back seat of my adoptive father's silver Corolla playing Flow on my phone while Jack is texting and Aero drives. As soon as we arrive at Axel's house Aero starts lecturing us about not doing anything we'd regret. He's right but I hate it when he gets like this. It's like bringing our mom with us. Aero and Jack finally stop bickering so we walk through the side of the house to the backyard where the music is coming from. There are lots of people and everyone seems to be having a good time but I see lots of red cups which can only mean one thing. Beer.

We wander through the crowd until Aero catches sight of Xion and tells us to follow him to her. When we get there, a group of our friends are sitting together our table. The girls look hot but Namine looks absolutely amazing! She's wearing a bright blue dress and white high heels. I can't believe it's her wearing that!

Aero, Jack, and I say hello to everyone but Namine gets a special hug. It's more of a long, tight, warm embrace than a hug. I finish hugging Xion when she says, "I was wondering when you punks would show up!"

Xion and Aero like to play around with each other so my cousin tells her, "Stop lying! You were desperately waiting for me to come and clean your juicer!"

I take a seat as they continue talking back to each other and look across the table at Namine. She looks at me, blushes as she smiles, and looks down then back up at me. Everyone starts laughing so I act casual and pretend to laugh along. Aero and Kairi are the only ones standing. Yeah it's that obvious that they're into each other.

Xion is as outspoken as always because she asks Aero, "So you give Noah and Jack a ride but not me, Aero?"

"Well I kind of have to." He replies.

Jack and I respond at the same time, "Hey!"

It turns out that my brothers and I forgot to tell our friends that Jack's parents adopted me and Aero. Aero explains the situation to them and they finally understand why Jack and I always seemed to know where Aero would be. I guess they all thought we were just really close friends.

When Aero finishes explaining, Axel comes offering drinks and Aero seems uneasy. Jack and I both look at him waiting for his response and I can tell Jack is ready to taste his first sip of liquor. I wouldn't mind having my first sip either but I'm a little worried about Jack. One drink might lead to another.

Aero finally responds. "I guess one won't hurt. But only one man. Nothing more."

Axel smiles genuinely, "Alright man, I can respect that. I sort of see Roxas and Xion as my little brothers so I feel responsible for them."

"I'm a girl!" yells Xion.

Axel looks at her with a huge grin and says, "I said what I meant." We all laugh as Axel sets down some shot glasses for all of us and pours a bit of Vodka into each one. He raises his glass. "To family and friends." We mimic him and all drink. "Yeah! Now let's keep the party going!" Axel goes to the DJ, Demyx, and tells him to play "Simple and Clean" to pump everyone up.

Two by two, my friends go up to dance. Sora tugs Kairi—obviously away from Aero—Olette almost skips to the dance floor as Hayner follows closely, Selphie quickly jumps on the opportunity to dance with Jack, and finally perky little Xion asks Aero to dance. The only two people left at our table are Namine and I and we're pretty quiet for a bit. I'm really bad when it comes to talking to girls. I get really nervous and don't know what to say. And because it's Namine, I'm even more nervous! I mean she's absolutely beautiful! Her hair, her eyes, her slim stomach and curvy waste. She's perfect!

She and I watch our friends in silence as they dance around. Oh geez is Aero doing the Carlton? He did that at our cousin's quinceañera but he slipped on beer that one of our uncles spilled. I really miss those family parties. My and Aero's dads would hang out by the barbeque drinking beer with our uncles and our moms would play Spanish bingo with our aunts. Aero and I would hang out with our cousins watching movies or messing around, making each other laugh. After the incident, Aero and I would still go to those parties with Jack's family because they were good friends of our family but it just wasn't the same. That's part of the reason why I was glad to leave Traverse Town. I can take the loss better if I'm not in the same city where it happened.

I finally snap back to reality and look over to Namine who keeps staring at our friends. I'm surprised someone else hasn't come to ask her to dance yet. I mean look at her! Namine notices I'm looking at her so she looks back at me and smiles sweetly but shyly.

I break the silence by asking her, "Looks like they're having lots of fun huh?" Is that really the best I can come up with?! Of course they're having fun! They're up there dancing!

She keeps smiling, "Yeah. Our friends sure no how to have a good time."

There's a slight pause before I ask, "I'm sure we can show them we can have a good time too." She looks at me in slight confusion but seems to know where this is going. "You want to go dance?" She smiles and nods as we go up there and join our circle of friends. I feel adrenaline pumping as I get a little too excited and yes. I dance like MC Hammer. I hop out of the circle to dance next to Namine and she smiles at me. I'll take that as a good sign.

Axel jumps in and starts doing a mix between shuffling and dubstep dancing. "They don't call me the Flurry of Dancing Flames for nothing!" I have never heard anyone call him that before but hey it's a party! We're here to have fun!

After about ten minutes, everyone sits down except for Xion and Axel who are still dancing like idiots.

"Hey Aero can you get me a soda?" asks Jack.

"Yeah sure what do you want?"

"Pepsi."

I add on, "Make that two bro." Before Aero goes, I ask Namine, "You want one?"

"No I'm okay. Thank you."

Aero goes to get a soda and after a few seconds pass, Kairi goes to get a drink too. Sora definitely doesn't look happy.

Jack decides to talk to him. "Hey what's up bro?!"

"Nothing much man. What about you?"

"Same dude just chilling." There's a short pause.

"You having fun?" I add on.

He looks at me for a moment before responding. He forces a smile as he says, "Yeah, I'm having fun dude. How about you?"

"I'm having fun too."

That's when Namine tells me she has to go to the restroom. As she leaves all of us guys except Hayner watch her walk away. I couldn't really concentrate with Sora and Jack staring at her ass. I was actually getting pretty jealous and I could feel my face turn serious. When Sora and Jack turn their attention back to me, I quickly calm myself down.

Sora starts talking. "So you and Namine huh?"

I try my best not to show my excitement at that statement. "Well we're just talking," I say casually.

Jack wants to laugh. "No way dude! She's crazy hot and she chooses to hang out with you! She wants the D!" He has a way with words doesn't he? My eyes shift to Olette who looks disgusted by his sexist remark towards her friend but she lets it slide and stays quiet.

I can't help but to smile at that. "Come on man. It's no big deal."

Olette joins the conversation saying, "Noah, you don't know how many guys have tried getting at her. She is one of the toughest girls in school to impress. And it doesn't help that her dad is the principal."

Jack and I look at each other, then at her and say in unison, "Wait! What?!"

"Yup Dr. Wise is her dad which is why she keeps her grades up. She'd hate to disappoint her dad slash the principal."

As Olette finishes, Aero and Kairi come back and sit down. Shortly after, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus come over from the dance floor—I haven't even noticed them at the party—and Namine returns from the restroom. Terra invites us all to dance so everyone except Sora, Kairi, Hayner, and Olette goes to the dance floor. Namine and I are the last to leave and I overhear the four talking about Roxas. Ever since Monday, Roxas has been getting distant and now I'm getting curious about why.

I dance with the group until Demyx says, "Alright we're going to slow things down a bit as requested by Axel and the vicious Larxene. He plays "Diamonds," by Rihanna and couples start slow dancing.

Namine and I look at each other and then we turn our attention to the couples around us dancing closely together. We look back at each other and I ask, "May I have this dance?" She gladly accepts as she wraps her fingers around the back of my neck and I put my hands on her waist. I've never slow danced with a girl before but I really like it. Her head wrests against my cheek as we sway back and forth holding each other closely. I don't feel so nervous with her right now because being here with her right now feels natural.

The song ends but Larxene demands another slow dance so she can cling to Axel. I'm not complaining because I get to keep dancing with Namine. After that song ends, Demyx decides to play a more, um, energetic song. The kind that girls can use as an excuse to grind on guys. As the song begins, I look at Namine feeling really uncomfortable and I can tell that she feels the same so we decide to have a seat with Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. I'm actually kind of relieved that Namine and Aqua don't dance that way. They seem way too nice to do that. Kairi on the other hand completely surprises me as she grinds on…wait Aero? Hmm. I wonder where Sora is.

As the others dance, it's pretty quiet between me and Namine. Finally I ask her, "Hey so, I know this is out of the blue but is Dr. Wise your dad?"

"Yeah…" There's a short pause after she responds.

"Well I think that's pretty awesome!" I say trying to sound enthusiastic.

She smiles noting my effort. "It's a good thing and a bad thing."

"How so?"

"Well it's a good thing because him being principal gives me a reason to work hard in school. And I've always had whatever I've asked for even though I don't ask for much. I was never into electronics and fancy things except my phone." She holds up her iPhone.

"And the bad part?"

"Well because my dad is the principal, he can find out whatever he wants about any boy at school which is pretty intimidating. Because of it, I've never had a boyfriend."

I look down trying to figure out what to say. Maybe I can be the first? No. She'll think I'm a creep. I finally reply by saying, "Well being in a relationship is nice," not that I would know but Jack has always seemed happy with his girlfriends, "but it's fun to be single and enjoy life without being chained down. Besides when you finally meet the guy you really like and he really likes you, he'll make sure to be able to impress your dad no matter what it takes because honestly, I think you're worth the struggle. Any guy would be lucky to be with you."

She smiles and blushes before suddenly hugging me. "Thank you, Noah."

I smile warmly and hug her back. "Yeah. You're welcome, Namine."

A few minutes pass by before Aero and Kairi come sit down. I'm talking to Namine about mimes—don't ask how we got into that conversation—when Aero nudges me and shows me the time. 12:10?! Time flies when you're having fun. I nod at Aero to show that I understand that we have to leave and he goes to tell Jack.

"Hey Namine, my brothers and I sort of told my adoptive mother that we would leave the party by 12:00."

"Oh, ok. Well I had lots of fun tonight."

"Yeah me too." I give her a big hug before asking her, "So I'll see you tomorrow for the project?"

"Yeah. Where should we meet?"

"Does Paopu Paradise sound good? I can probably get Aero to give me a discount."

"Ok. Sounds great!"

"Alright see you later." I walk away and say goodbye to all my other friends. Aero, Jack, and I get inside the car and head home. I think tonight was pretty successful.

**I'd say Noah had lots of fun tonight am I right?! Sure he didn't get a kiss like Aero but he's taking a step in the right direction! So let's find out what Jack was up to at this party besides obviously getting grinded on by Selphie.**


	10. The Bacchanal-Part 3

**Here we go! Last part for this three-parter! I'm always looking for advice and suggestions for this story so review or pm me please!**

**Chapter 10: The Bacchanal Part 3-Jack**

I sit in the passenger seat of my dad's car while Aero drives and Noah plays games on his phone. I'm really excited for this party! I mean first week here and my brothers and I've already been invited to a party! The best part is that there are so many hot girls just at our school and I'm pretty sure Axel invited girls from outside Twilight Town High.

As soon as we get to Axel's house, Aero starts nagging at us. "Remember, mom said to come home at twelve," He says, "And I prefer to stay on her good side."

I open the car door and reply in an irritating manner, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."

He exits the car and looks at me seriously. "I'm serious. I'm pretty sure she won't let us come to these things if we mess up this time."

"Yeah I guess you're right," I reply.

"Of course I am. Oh and no drinking or drugs," He points at me and Noah, "Because I won't cover for you if you do something stupid."

"Can we just go in already?" I ask finally tired of this. Seriously! If he's going to be like this, we could've brought mom instead.

He smiles at us then says, "Yeah."

The music is coming from the backyard so we don't even bother going to the door. We see people walking out from the side of the house so we go through there and walk into the backyard. We wander around through the crowd of people and I see lots of party cups. Xion calls us over so we greet our friends and sit down with them. It turns out that my brothers and I forgot to mention that my parents adopted them. How did we forget that little detail?!

Anyway, Axel walks over to us with a bottle of vodka and offers a toast to family. Aero doesn't want us to drink but he pauses before answering. All eyes are on him but the only people he looks at are me, Noah, and Axel trying to decide whether to say yes or no. I really want to taste my first drink and Aero's the one with the power to make it happen. I could feel the anticipation and excitement on my face as I look at him.

Finally, he says, "I guess one won't hurt. But only one man. Nothing more."

Noah and I high five each other as Axel pours the drinks and says, "To family and friends!" We repeat after him and drink our shots. Axel goes over to the DJ booth and Demyx plays the song "Simple and Clean." Sora takes Kairi by the hand and Olette leads Hayner to go dance. I'm watching them as they walk away when suddenly I feel a hand grabbing mine. I turn and look up to find Selphie smiling at me.

"Want to go dance sugar?" she asks.

"Uh, su—" she pulls me with her to the dance floor before I can even finish my sentence but you can't blame her. I mean it is me after all. As soon as we get to the dance floor, Selphie starts grinding on me which I don't mind at all. Pretty soon, Aero and Xion join the group and we all start dancing together. Finally, Noah, Namine, and Axel join in too and we all dance together showing off our moves no matter how ridiculous.

After dancing for what seems like hours, my friends and I sit down—well except for Xion and Axel who are still full of energy. Aero goes to get sodas for me, himself, and Noah and after a few seconds pass, Kairi goes to get a drink too. Sora looks kind of pissed but like I said if he doesn't handle her then Aero will.

I decide to talk to Sora to make him feel a less uncomfortable. "Hey what's up bro?!"

"Nothing much man. What about you?"

"Same dude just chilling." There's a short pause.

"You having fun?" Noah adds on.

He looks at Noah for a moment before responding. He forces a smile as he says, "I'm having fun dude. How about you?"

"I'm having fun too."

Namine decides to go to the restroom leaving me, Noah, Sora, Hayner, Olette, and Selphie are talking. As Namine walks away I can't help but to look at her perfectly shaped ass. I mean it's nice and round. Noah better not screw this up!

I get a good glimpse of Namine's butt and notice that Noah and Sora are still looking so I take this as the perfect opportunity to mess with Sora. I know he really likes Kairi but the dude is too controlling and she's not even his girlfriend. Sora may be my friend but Aero is family so he comes first. I slip my hand into my hoodie and pull out a small bag of laxatives. While Sora is distracted, I slip some into his drink and put the bag away before he and Noah return their attention to the conversation.

Sora starts talking to Noah. "So you and Namine huh?"

"Well we're just talking," Noah says casually.

Yeah right! I want to laugh because this is the first girl that's ever been into Noah and he talks about it like it's nothing. "No way dude! She's crazy hot and she chooses to hang out with you! She wants the D." I notice that Olette scowls at me. Yeah, forgot she was still here.

Noah gets a huge smile on his face because he knows it's true. "Come on man. It's no big deal."

Olette joins the conversation saying, "Noah, you don't know how many guys have tried getting at her. She is one of the toughest girls in school to impress. And it doesn't help that her dad is the principal."

Noah and I look at each other, then at her and say in unison, "Wait! What?!"

"Yup Dr. Wise is her dad which is why she keeps her grades up. She'd hate to disappoint her dad slash the principal." When Olette finishes, Kairi and Aero return, and that's when Terra, Aqua, and Ventus come over and invite us to dance. Shortly after, Demyx decides to play a slow dance and everyone starts pairing off—Noah and Namine, Hayner and Olette, Axel and Larxene, and Sora and Kairi. Selphie immediately swoops me and we start dancing together. Don't get me wrong, Selphie is very pretty but I'm not into her like that. I don't want to hurt her feelings so I just dance with her anyway. If there's anyone here that I really want to dance with it would have to be Aqua. She's just extremely beautiful! She's smart, kind, and tall. Which is okay because I'm still taller (Yay!). She seems too nice and mature to like a player like me. I'm trying to turn this around but I mean look at me. I have Selphie clinging to me without even trying to get at her. Hopefully I can talk to Aqua and spend some time with her.

About a minute into the song, my little addition to Sora's drink starts taking effect as I notice that he starts running inside the house with his hand covering his stomach. Aero walks over to the unattended Kairi and starts dancing with her. Yeah that's my boy!

The song soon finishes but Larxene tells Demyx to play another one so Selphie and I dance again. Then the fun part comes as Demyx starts playing some music that girls can grind to and that's exactly what Selphie does. I have to admit, now I'm glad I'm dancing with Selphie because she is really good at this. Like really good!

What came as a shock to me was seeing Kairi grinding on Aero. I mean she looks like she's really good at it but I didn't expect her to dance like that. And I'm not surprised that Namine isn't grinding because she is the last person I would expect to see grinding on someone even if it was Noah. After about twenty minutes of dancing, Aero comes up to me, shows me the time on his phone, and says that we have to go. I hate that we can't stay longer but I'd prefer to stay on mom's good side so my brothers and I say goodbye to everyone and decide to go home. I'm very satisfied with how the night turned out. I got to dance with a cute girl and my brothers got to dance with the girls they like. Everybody wins! Well except Sora.

**Sorry that this one was shorter than the last two but this chapter just went to show Jack's side of the story and a look into his personality. So the next chapter will show one of our hero's date so we'll see how that goes.**


	11. Study Date

**Okay so I apologize that last chapter was so short and I decided for future multi-parters to do something different instead of having only one persepctive for each part, there will be multiple P.O.V.s from each of the protagonists. Oh and I've updated all the chapters so far to change the last names of the organization 13 and teachers and Ansem the Wise's last names because Dr. Ansem and Mr. Braig and so forth sounded kind of dumb so I changed it as follows:**

**Dr. Ansem=Dr. Wise**

**Mr. Braig=Mr. Arrow**

**Mr. Dilan=Mr. Lancer**

**Mr. Even=Mr. Chill**

**Mr. Ienzo=Mr. Lexicon**

**Coach Aeleus=Coach Stalwart**

**And I left Mr. Xehanort the same but whenever Dr. Wise refers to him, it will be by his first name Xemnas. Anyway sorry for the confusion and enjoy this chapter!**

**Chapter 11: Study Date-Noah**

My eyes crack open slightly then all the way to see the wooden planks underneath Aero's mattress. I notice that sunlight has already entered the room so I turn my head to the left towards Jack's bed to see that he is still asleep. I then redirect my eyes to my night stand where my and Aero's phones lay charging. I grab my phone, unplug it, and check the time to see that it's already 10:34. Well I still have two hours before I have to meet Namine at Paopu Paradise so I guess I'll just start off my day with some breakfast.

I push my blanket off of my body, step into my Nike sandals, and walk out of the room. As I exit, I look to my right to see that Aero's bed is empty but still messy. I guess he already left to work but didn't feel like making his bed. I step outside of my room and walk down the hall towards the kitchen which is connected to the living room. Jade and Jocelyn are already up and watching cartoons in the living room while my adoptive mother is making breakfast.

"Good morning Noah," she says gleefully as she turns her head to me.

"Good morning," I walk to the fridge and take out a carton of orange juice.

"Would you like some eggs?" she asks as she points to the scrambled eggs inside the frying pan she's holding.

"Sure," I say as I grab a cup and pour orange juice into it, "Thank you." She serves me a plate and I take a seat at the table with a good view of the television. Jade and Jocelyn are watching Pokémon episodes on Netflix which is cool with me because Pokémon will always be badass. I finish my breakfast, wash my plate, and head to my room to pick out my clothes for the day. I grab some boxers, socks, a blue and white striped polo shirt, and blue jeans and head to the bathroom to brush my teeth and then shower. When I get out, I get dressed and check my phone to see that it's barely 11:34. I meet up with Namine at 12:00 so I guess I should get going.

I grab my backpack and say, "I'm going to a friend's house for a project. I'll be back around 4:00."

My adoptive mother responds, "Ok be careful and stay safe."

"Alright thanks."

My six year old adoptive sister, Jade, yells out, "Bye Noah!"

I smile and respond, "Bye Jade. Bye to you too Jocelyn." Jocelyn just waves back. She's twelve so she's a bit moody. Girl stuff.

I walk out the door and close the door behind me then start walking to Paopu Paradise. On the way I think about what happened last night. I mean yeah I didn't get to kiss her but we got to slow dance and it felt so intimate. I really liked it because I can actually talk to this girl and be close with her without completely embarrassing myself. I have the worst history with girls—scratch that—I don't have a history with girls. I've just never been the type to be able to walk up to the girl and ask her out. I know it seems silly to be so bad at just asking but when I try, my heart starts pounding and I feel like I'm about to enter a cage with a lion. But with Namine, I feel like I'm cuddling with a puppy. So welcoming and relaxing.

I reach Paopu Paradise at 11: 55 and go inside to see my cousin making smoothies and serving ice cream. He doesn't notice me so I don't bother trying to get his attention. Instead, I look around but Namine isn't here yet. It's actually pretty packed today so as soon as I see someone get up, I take that table and set my backpack on it. I wait for about ten minutes until I see a black Lexus drive into the parking lot and Namine come out of the car. I guess her dad is dropping her off. Dr. Wise is cool and everything but he seems pretty strict so I'd rather not face him neither as a dad nor as a principal. Namine walks in through the door and looks around. She looks over in my direction so I wave and she comes over.

"Hi!" she says cheerfully with a big smile.

I smile back, "Hey. So you had trouble finding the place?" I show her the time on my phone.

She giggles, "Sorry about that but you know how long girls take to get ready."

"What time did you wake up?"

"I sort of slept in. I woke up at 10:30."

I look at the time on my phone then at her. "Wow that's extremely late huh?"

She giggles again, "Shut up!" she slaps my arm.

"So you want to get something before we get started?"

"No, I'm ok."

"Come on, it's my treat." I give her a big smile.

"No really, I'm fin—"

"No. No. I insist."

She finally gives in, "Alright you win," she reaches into her purse.

"Don't worry about it it's my treat?"

She looks concerned. "Are you sure? I have enough."

"Don't worry about it. It's my pleasure."

She smiles, "Ok. Thank you very much."

"No problem." I get up and get in line to order.

When I reach the register, a man in his forties says, "Hey how are you?"

"Good, thank you. Yourself?"

"I'm good too, thanks. What can I get for you?"

"I'll have two sea salt flavored ice creams."

"That'll be $2.90." I hand him three dollars and just as he is about to put it in the register, Aero comes over.

"Arnold, this is my little cousin and I'd like to use my employee discount on him."

"Wait this is your little cousin?!" He looks over at Namine. "Damn why does everyone in your family get cute girls?!" He knows about Aero and Kairi?

Aero laughs and replies, "That's just how we Castillos were born right cous'?" I smile and nod.

Arnold turns to me and says, "Ok well now it comes out to 2.03."

"Ok can I have a dollar back?" I hand him a nickel and get my dollar back.

He hands me my change and receipt then goes over to a cooler and pulls out two ice creams. He hands them over to me and as I walk away, Aero says, "Good luck little cousin!" I smile and flip him off because he was trying to yell loud enough for Namine to hear. I don't think she did because she was on her phone and didn't look up when Aero shouted. I return to Namine and hand her the ice cream.

"Thank you," she says as she smiles.

"You're welcome," I smile back. "You should probably eat it before it melts."

She smiles, "Yeah." There's a short pause but then she says, "The Jack O' Lanterns don't have a chance against the Wonderland Mad Hatters."

I look at her in shock. I can't believe she's into football! And the Mat Hatters of all teams! Finally I respond, "The Mad Hatters of all teams? When was the last time they went to the Super Bowl?"

"1997 but they've still had six Super Bowl wins while the Jack O' Lanterns only have three." She smiles confidently. Now I really didn't expect any of this from her. I mean this is sweet little Namine we're talking about! I guess that cliché old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" really is true.

"Yeah but at least we made it to the play offs this year. The Mad Hatters haven't made it in seven years."

"We still have more wins and you can't say anything until the Jack O' Lanterns get four more."

I chuckle. "Fair enough. Well since we're finished with our ice cream how about we get started on our English assignment?"

"Sure. Did you make the notes in your copy of _Romeo and Juliet_?"

"Yeah. So we have to write definitions and examples for each literary device Shakespeare uses in Act I and make a concept map?"

"Pretty much. Simple enough right?"

"Yeah it's a simple task but it's really tedious."

She giggles as she takes out a large piece of paper and we get on with our work. We end up finishing in half the time I thought it would take because Namine and I both make really good annotations.

"Well I guess that's all the literary devices and you're drawings really make the concept map stand out." I say.

"Yeah, I told my dad to pick me up at four and he said he had errands to run so I don't think he'll be here any time soon."

"You wanna' hang out somewhere else until then?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"We can go get something to eat. There's a Chinese buffet a few blocks from here. I tried it last week with my family and it was pretty good."

"I love Chinese food! Ok let's go but I'm paying for myself this time."

I chuckle, "I like the independence."

She smiles, "Thanks, I don't like depending on my friends to pay for me. Especially since my dad makes a good amount of money."

I hold the door open for her as we exit and look at Aero who is cleaning a juicer. That image immediately makes me think of Xion but that's beside the point. Aero smiles, turns to his side, and humps the juicer. I'm so glad Namine didn't see that. I close the door behind me and we head over to the Chinese buffet.

I hold the door for her again as we walk in, pay for our entry, and go look for a table. While walking around, I notice Hayner, Pence, and Olette sitting at another table. They wave over at me so I tap Namine on the shoulder and point in their direction. She smiles when she sees them and waves. We go over there and say hello to our friends.

"Hey what's up guys!" yells Hayner as we clasp hands.

"Not much man! I didn't know you guys were here."

Olette responds, "Yeah we come here every Saturday. It's sort of our little tradition and sometimes Roxas will come too but lately he's been so distant."

"I don't mean to be nosy but what's been up with him?"

"You didn't hear?" she responds. "He confessed to Xion about his crush and the bet he had with Seifer and she got really mad at him. That's why he's been hanging out with Demyx, Larxene, and Marluxia."

"Man that sucks. I feel kind of bad about this whole situation."

Hayner replies, "Nah, don't be man. It doesn't even have anything to do with you. So do you guys want to come eat with us?"

I turn to Namine sort of hoping that she wants to keep it just us two. "What do you think?"

She looks at them then at me. She seems unsure which either means she would rather just have dinner with me or she doesn't want to hurt my feelings. She finally says, "Sure, it would be nice to sit with some friends." I guess she doesn't want this to be a date but oh well at least we're sitting with people we know.

Namine and I go grab our food and I return with chow Mein, orange chicken, beef and broccoli, dumplings, white rice, and egg rolls all stacks together on a single plate. Namine comes back with a salad and some Jell-O. I guess that's how she keeps her figure. At least that's what I thought before the five plates of food she ate. This girl can eat! We finish at around 3:30 so Namine and I decide to head back to Paopu Paradise so her dad can pick her up. We get back to Paopu Paradise and sit at a table until the black Lexus returns. Namine gives me a hug.

"We should do this again some time." She says.

"Sure, just hit me up whenever you want."

"Okay," she hugs me, walks out the door, and gets inside her dad's car.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn to see Aero smiling at me. "So how'd it go?"

"We went to that Chinese buffet and we saw Hayner, Olette, and Pence there so we all ate together."

"Sounds like it was pretty chill then. Let's get going."

"Where?"

"Uh, home? I'm off at four remember?"

"Oh right." We exit Paopu Paradise and head home together and I tell him about how Namine goes for the Mad Hatters and he starts cracking up.

"The Mad Hatters?! They haven't won a Super Bowl in 21 years!"

"That's what I said!"

"Are you sure you're into this chick?" he teases.

"I'm not even—"

"Dude I'm your big cousin, big brother, and best friend. I know when you're into a girl."

I can feel my cheeks burn up. "So what if I am? What about you and Kairi?"

"Relax dude I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's a good thing that you found a cute, smart, nice girl. And I have a date with Kairi tonight at the movies." He smiles and makes the "click click" noise with his mouth.

"Hey Aero?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what's going on with Roxas?"

His face turns serious. "Well on my way home from work on Monday, I overheard him confess his feelings for Xion and the bet he made with Seifer. She doesn't like him and she was absolutely livid when he told her about the bet."

"Ouch."

"Yeah it sucks but there's nothing we can do about it. It's something Roxas and Xion have to work out between themselves and that's if they even want to do anything about it." We continue walking home changing the subject to his date with Kairi.

**Noah handling! Am I right? Well we'll see what happens between him and Namine later on. Anyway, don't forget to R&R!**


	12. The Crimson Haired Princess

**So I've decided to start posting chapters on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays because I get home later on Thursdays and sometimes don't feel like posting chapters because I'm tired. Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter and let me know what you think of the OC's and how I portray the Kingdom Hearts characters. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 12: The Crimson Haired Princess-Aero **

"Really?! Thanks! Alright I really appreciate this. I'll see you when I get home…dad." I hang up my cell phone and look out the window. Dad. First time I call him that. I mean it's not like I don't see him as a father figure and appreciate everything he's done for me but I guess up until now I saw it as disrespect towards my parents if I called anyone else mom or dad. My parents will always be the ones who brought me into this world but now I feel like I'm even more fortunate to have two sets of parents that both deeply care and cared about me.

Jack walks in with an ice cream drum stick in his hand. "Was that dad?"

"Yeah I asked him if I can borrow the Corolla to take Kairi out and he said it was ok with him as long as I put gas in after."

"Sweet. Did he say when his flight takes off?"

"Yeah in about ten minutes."

Jade shouts from the living room, "Why is dad leaving for the weekend?"

My adoptive mother—I mean my mom—says from the kitchen, "He needs to land a business deal. Don't worry it's only this weekend. Next Saturday we're all going to the beach in Destiny Islands."

Jack smiles, "And you know what beaches mean,"

We say in unison, "Bit—"

Our mom is staring at us so I finish by saying, "Bi-eautiful scenery!" She smiles at my effort to cover up and starts laughing as she shakes her head. She walks into her bedroom when Noah comes out of ours.

Jade asks our mom, "Isn't Destiny Islands where you work, mom?"

"No honey, I work at a restaurant called The Destiny Islands which is named after the beach Destiny Islands."

"Ohhhh!" she responds and returns to watching T.V.

"So you gonna' go on your date now Aero?" he asks.

"Oh yeah, I should get ready." I pass him and go into our room to get some clothes. I grab a blue, black, and gray flannel, a black undershirt, my dark gray jeans, boxers, and some socks and head into the restroom for a quick shower. When I step out, I put my dirty clothes in the laundry and put on my black and dark gray Jordan's.

Jack walks into our room and says, "Damn! You're getting that P tonight!" I start cracking up and I can hear Noah laughing in the hallway too.

"Relax it's only the first date," I reply with a huge grin on my face.

Noah appears in the doorway, "You never know man. A lot can happen on the first date."

"True but let's just see how things go." I grab my black jacket and keys and walk out of our room. "Alright I'll come back later." I wave and close the front door behind me. I walk to the driveway and get into my dad's Jeep. I unlock my iPhone and Siri to search for the address Kairi gave me. Once Siri finds it, I take off.

When I get to the address, I see a humble little house so I double check the address. I park the car in front and walk to the front door. I knock and wait for a few seconds before the door cracks open and I find a short elderly woman standing in front of me.

I smile trying and say politely, "Good evening."

"Good evening. Are you looking for Kairi?"

"Yes." Time to turn the charm on. "You must be her mother?"

She smiles and laughs, "Oh no, I'm her grandmother. Come in sweetie," she takes a step back to give me room so I take a step inside. "I'll go get her." She walks into another room and while she's gone, I do some reconnaissance to see what Kairi and her grandmother like. I look around the room and see some soccer trophies, a few family pictures, and some miniature elephant statues. Kairi and her grandmother come out of the room and Kairi has a big smile on her face.

"Hi Aero!" she walks over to me to hug me. When she pulls away she says, "This is my grandmother."

I smile and respond, "I see where Kairi's beauty comes from." Kairi's cheeks turn bright red and her grandmother smiles and laughs.

"Grandma, can I come back at 10:00?"

Her grandmother smiles, "Of course, but no later than that okay?" She looks at me and starts giggling.

"I really appreciate you letting Kairi come out with me."

"It's no problem. She's told me a lot of good things about you. Like how kind and smart you are." Now I feel like I'm blushing.

I scratch the back of my head, smile, and say, "Well I'm glad she speaks so kindly of me."

Kairi grabs me by the arm and says, "Okay grandma we've got to get going. Thanks again for letting me go."

"It was nice meeting you!" I say as we exit the house. I open the door for Kairi and when she's in, I go to my side, get in, and drive off to the movie theatre. When we get there, we get in line to buy our tickets.

"What do you want to see Kairi?"

"Mmmm how about Delivery Man?"

"Awesome I've been wanting to watch that one."

She smiles happily, "Great!"

I walk up to the ticket window and ask for two tickets for Delivery Man. I notice Kairi is scrounging through her purse for money.

"Hey Kai," she looks up at me, "Don't worry about it, I've got it."

She smiles, "Alright but I've got the snacks." I smile. Hmm I like a girl who doesn't expect the guy to pay for everything.

I pay for the tickets and hold onto them until I hand them to the employee who rips the stubs and hands them back to me saying, "You're movie will be in Theatre 10." I give one to Kairi and she puts it in her purse while I put mine in my back pocket.

We get to the snack line and wait until it's our turn. When we make it to the front of the line, the cashier asks, "What can I get for you two today?"

"Do you want to get the Combo 1?"

"Sure!" she says getting her money out. I feel kind of bad for letting her pay but hey she offered.

The cashier asks, "What candy do you want?"

I turn to Kairi who responds, "Sour Patch Kids please."

"Alright, that'll be 15.49" Kairi pays for the food and the cashier gives her, her change. The cashier then leaves and returns with a large bag of popcorn, two drinks, and a box of Sour Patch Kids. We get our food, butter our popcorn, fill our drinks, and walk to Theatre 10.

We sit near the middle of the room not too far, not too close, not too far left, and not too far right. We sit talking about Kevin Hart's jokes and Ice Cube's music until the movie starts. The movie plays while we watch and laugh along. At the part where Vince Vauhn's character and his girlfriend in the movie have a kiss in the hospital so I look over to Kairi and she looks back at me. We both smile and lean in to kiss each other. When we finish, we smile back at each other and go back to watching the movie but now I place my hand over hers so that we're holding hands. The movie finishes, and we walk out of the theatre holding hand until we get to the car. I open the door for her again and get in myself and we drive off.

"What did you think of the movie?" I ask.

"It was funny." She replies. "I kind of liked what happened elsewhere in the theatre more."

I smile. "Yeah so did I."

We spend the rest of the car ride talking and laughing about what we saw in the movie until we get to her house. We sit in the car for a little bit talking some more.

"Hey Kai,"

"Yeah Aero?"

"I hope you don't take offense to this question but uh, is your hair natural or dyed?"

She pauses then laughs for a bit. "It's natural."

I smile. "Really?! That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!"

"One of?" she asks while smiling and raising an eye brow.

"Well yeah, one of. I'd say the absolute coolest thing I've ever seen, well actually to be part of, would be a smart, kind, beautiful girl going on a date with an average guy like me." I hold her left hand with my right hand and smile at her. She blushes and smiles back as we lean in to kiss again.

"You're not average," she responds. "You treat me different than every other guy I've been with. You like to joke around with me and talk with me and you care about what I think and you're not afraid to ask me stupid questions like you just did," we both laugh at that statement.

"Gee didn't your teachers ever tell you there's no such thing as a stupid question?"

"They never heard that one." We continue laughing until it grows silent. "Believe it or not, I used to hate my red hair because it's so different from all the other girls' hair."

"And then you met Aqua," I joke.

She laughs and responds, "No! I cried to my grandmother one night about it when I was ten and she read me this story about a princess with red hair. This princess was kind and pure hearted to everyone and everything that she met. One day, an evil sorcerer took advantage of her kindness and with his magic began draining her kindness which was connected to her life. As her kindness was being drained, her hair started to darken as though a pitch black void was replacing it and she was losing her energy. A noble warrior came to save her and defeated the sorcerer but the magic had drained her kindness and life. The warrior decided to kiss her and as he did, her hair became red again and her life returned to her body. And like most storybook endings, they went back to their kingdom, got married, and lived happily ever after."

"Wow! That's a really cool story!"

"Well that was only the gist."

"Does your grandmother still have that book?"

"Yeah, why? Does the wittle kid want to read it?" she asks as she pinches my cheeks.

I laugh, "Yeah he wants to read it. It sounds interesting and I can always read it to my little sisters."

"I didn't know you had little sisters."

"Well they're Jack's little sisters but like I said last night at the party, everyone in that house has become a family to me." There's a slight pause. "You and your grandma seem really close too."

"Yeah, well when you lose your parents," my jaw tightens slightly, "You learn to appreciate those who are still in your life." She gets it too. She lost her parents too so someone else had to take care of her.

There's a small moment of silence again until I say, "I guess I'll walk you inside."

"Okay." We walk to her front door and when we reach it, she gets in front of me, turns around, and says, "I really had fun tonight, Aero."

I smile, "Yeah, me too. Wanna' do this again sometime?"

"Sure. How about next Friday?"

"Yeah that works for me." We smile and kiss each other one more time. "Alright, I'll see you at school, good night."

She opens the door, responds "Good night," and goes inside. I get in my dad's car and drive home.

**Do I smell romance in the air? I think I do! I really enjoyed writing this chapter because there were jokes, romance, and character development. Tune in for next week!**


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